"No battle plan ever survived first contact with the enemy."

Make all the advance directives you like, make them as comprehensive and cunning as you can. But as a back up, you had better pray that when the day comes you are in the hands of people who balance respect for your wishes with compassion, and a little horse sense.

I am ALSO wondering if something has been left off of the next to the last line of D - "and that I not be placed on a ventilator or given." Is something else supposed to follow the word "given"....??
given life sustaining medication?

Thank you for this great VSED addition to a natural directive. I am adding it to my directive today. I am wondering if something has been left off of the next to the last line of D - "and that I not be placed on a ventilator or given." Is something else supposed to follow the word "given?"

Many thanks for these suggestions. I am concerned about the last sentence of C. If one is already in dementia (especially -- although potentially delusion, or other conditions as well) where they are no longer able to give informed consent, "I wish to die by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED)." is not necessarily an option. Of course, many people with advanced dementia will automatically stop eating and drinking as they move into active dying. However, they will likely wish to die before their body naturally shuts down -- for some people with dementia may live up to a decade in conditions that they would not consider acceptable. Unfortunately, during that period, they often don't have the mental capacity to CHOOSE to stop eating and drinking -- that is, they NO LONGER understand that continuing to do so is prolonging their life. Even living 'in the moment' of suffering in an unacceptable way does not lead to choosing to die via starvation; so this option would not be 'voluntary'. Therefore, there needs to be a way that people with dementia (and in fact, anyone who ends up in a condition of suffering and unable to give 'informed consent') can give advance consent (to MAID and/or death by starvation) AND give the right to choose the timing of those options to their Representative/Proxy/Agent. These are the people that they havre already legally entrusted with any medical decisions about their living/dying that aren't, or couldn't be (like exact timing), be covered in their Advance Directive -- including withholding or withdrawing life support. It is only reasonable then that any decisions that lead directly to death would also be entrusted to them.

We have had 4 very elderly family members voluntarily end their lives: 2 by discontinuing eating, and 2 by refusing to have stomach hemorrhages repaired. The 2 who stopped eating were in nursing homes. The 2 who bled to death were in hospitals. No medical staff sought any kind of intervention. This fact makes me wonder if the Advance Directive is actually needed in order to voluntarily stop eating. On the other hand, when my 84 yr. old mother goes to ER to prevent a stroke, the staff acts disappointed that she has no DNR and that she is actually directing them to resusitate. Their attitude greatly concerns me. I have seen quite a bit of evidence in medical facilities, with several different loved ones, that lead me to believe there is an unspoken committment to hasten elders' deaths. With this attitude present, I question the wisdom of having a DNR in place that could result in poor care.

My mom was killed by medical staff in the hospital. She had everything in place a D.N.R.,advance directive that said no drastic measures. I don't believe that it said kill me if you want and if it would be easier for the staff to not have me around. Or drug me so severely so I will suffer complications and need more medical care and then you can call me severly demented cause I am so drugged up into a coma..As strong as she was they were still not able to get her to the point of needing drastic measures and cpr. It was not from a lack of medical staff trying.They tried real hard to get her to need drastic measures or C.P.R. so they could say she died naturally.They were able to kill her at the end since they were so bound and determined. How can you stop this from happening.This is not rare either. Because this happens I would suggest wanting no dnr and drastic measures to keep the person alive since you can not trust the staff to have good morals. besides having that on your advance directive what else could be put on there to protect the elder from the medical staff even if the elder is not suffering from any kind of dementia.