Court ruling keeps patient in Abbotsford alive with feeding
Posted February 4, 2014 8:50 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A BC Supreme Court ruling Monday means an Alzheimer’s patient in Abbotsford will continue to be fed even though it goes against the wishes of both her and her family.
Margot Bentley is in a nursing home in the final stage of Alzheimer’s Disease.
It’s not the future she envisioned, says Wanda Morris with the group Dying with Dignity. “[She] used to work on a dementia ward so she really knew what the future could hold if this were to happen and she repeatedly said she didn’t ever want to live like this.”
Bentley made that clear in a living will and her family hoped to end the feeding, which is being done by a spoon and cup
Now, the ruling means she will continue that care, keeping her alive.
Morris says it’s a situation few people think of. “It is so common because what happens is if you don’t state your wishes, the default is care, the default is treatment.”
She adds the ruling means feeding now differs from other forms of care that would keep a patient alive like life support. “While all those other treatments can be stopped ahead of time by writing out an advanced care plan, this option, being spoon-fed they’re saying no, that she doesn’t have the right.”
Bentley’s family had wanted her feeding stopped.
