Living Will as Suicide Note
by Cathy Ruse
October 5, 2009
Read this story of a poor young woman, just 26 years old, who was depressed about not being able to have a child. She’s now dead, thanks to her Living Will which forbade emergency medical treatment to save her life after she swallowed antifreeze.
Whether the doctors were actually forbidden from saving her life or not, I don’t know – mightn’t her depression have impacted her competency to refuse live-saving treatment? — but they believed they were and the result is now irrevocable.
The story calls this the first case of a Living Will used to commit suicide. How can we know this? Perhaps it’s only the first obvious case.
The point here: these are powerful legal documents, and Congress is poised to create a government-run health care system which will pay doctors to encourage patients to execute them. Think of the perils. People who are sick or in pain are inherently vulnerable. They are also often depressed. It would not take much to persuade them to sign away their right to future care. Remember, the Hemlock Society drafted this section of the heatlh care bill. I wonder what they think of the death of poor Kerrie Woolterton.
Family Research Council is a 501c(3) non-profit organization. If this post has been helpful to you, please consider a gift to help us continue to advance Faith, Family, and Freedom.
Comments
[...] week I mentioned the tragic death of a depressed young woman who drank antifreeze and presented a Living Will forbidding treatment to save here. According [...]
This was misreported by the media. The ‘living will’ was not valkid in UK law because it was motivated by a desire to bring about her death.
The rules around what are known in law as Advance Decisions are very clear and this didn’t qualify.
But she had capacity and refused. Therefore the decision was said to be lawful in that sense.
Many of us in UK (I work in mental health services myself as a practitioner, consultant and trainer) are unhappy with it because there is a powerful argument that suicidal intent means we have a duty of care to preserve life. Consequently the problem, if there is one, is that no intervention was made on mental health grounds.
Personally I anticipate more guidance as cases come up over time from a senior court which will clarify the issue for the future. In the meantime English law makes it very clear that we can (and regularly do) intervene in suicide attempts.
Cheers,
Stuart
By: FRC Blog » Living Will Suicide Was Lawful, Says UK Coroner Inquest | October 7, 2009 at 10:29 am
[...] week I mentioned the tragic death of a depressed young woman who drank antifreeze and presented a Living Will forbidding treatment to save here. According to [...]