I am a fully alert, reasonably mobile, ‘in good working condition’ 83-year-old. I walk with a cane, can drive my car when I want, and go on wildlife photo safaris. I socialise, love eating pani-puri. And I am doing it. I am making a living will.
With advancing healthcare technology the earth is now groaning under the weight of us seniors. We oldies live longer. The geriatric population has taken a quantum leap. The medics are required to save lives, and so every day one hears of people put on life support systems including those who are little more than vegetables. The nurse Aruna Shanbaug in Mumbai, immobilised, muted, supported and in horizontal state, who ‘lived’ for 23 years, is a case in point. The medics cannot pull the tubes because the patient lives, even while in pain, incoherent, paralysed, and with little chance of coming out of it.
Who is to decide to send such a patient home? And allow him/her a dignified death? It is the patient who can decide. That’s the answer the Supreme Court gave.
In March 2018, the Supreme Court granted the suffering soul the power to decide to die in peace, absolving the medics/relatives of any responsibility. To do that, one has to make a ‘living will’ in which it is to be specified that if a situation arises when one cannot talk to express the wish, and is in pain and paralysed with little hope of survival, one should be sent home. It has to be worded in appropriate legal jargon, of course.
There are provisos and procedures to follow: stamp paper document, witnesses, attestation, notarisation, registration, executors and so on. I’m doing it. I’m saying: modern medicine can help my body as long as I want, but it should stay away when I don’t want it. The medics/relatives will not be responsible if I choose a dignified death when the time comes.
The living will is to be opened when the situation arises and thus, while still living. So, the living will has to be a separate will, that is, cannot be a codicil or add-on or appendix to a normal will. I’m making one.
Now for a Sunday treat, I am going for a pani-puri. There is a good roadside chap in my neighbourhood.
arundewdrop@gmail.com
