An Advance Health Directive (“AHD”) sets out your wishes in the event that you are
incapacitated, for instance, “Do Not Resuscitate”. The admirable self-sacrifice
of issuing instructions to spare your relatives the expense and anguish of
prolonging your life after you have reached your “Sell by Date” is ruined for
some by the length, detail, and turgid nature of the AHD form which runs to 24
pages.
Whereas Mafia
victims are given every assurance before being unexpectedly garotted in the
passenger seat of their car, the AHD requires you to choose the method of your
demise, be it lack of oxygen, starvation or thirst, or an “OST combo”. Many find
it difficult to tick the box which provides that they are to be denied food and
yearn for an option of “SAVE FOR the occasional light snack”.
The AHD form includes sections which allow you to:
- expound on your spiritual and religious views as if your relatives had not heard enough already.
- list people who should not be consulted on your condition. For instance, an evil twin, ex-wife, or mother in law.
- choose someone to agonise over these decisions for you although it is difficult to find someone who can do it as well as yourself.
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