THRISSUR: Highlighting one’s right to die with dignity and to have a say in medical care during final days, a group of people, including healthcare professionals, are all set to prepare their ‘Living Will’.
On Tuesday, 30 volunteers of the Thrissur Pain and Palliative Care Society will sign their respective wills during an event to be held at the society’s office. With this collective effort, they also aim to highlight the ‘exploitation’ by healthcare facilities during the final days of a patient.
A Living Will is a written statement that explains the will of a person about the medical treatment the person wants to undergo in circumstances in which she/he is no longer able to express informed consent.
“I am a cancer survivor and am aware of the circumstances in which a person should undergo advanced medical treatment and when a person should be left to die. Through this effort, we wanted to create awareness on people’s right to die with dignity, which is an extension of the right to live with dignity,” said N N Gokuldas, a retired professor and founding member of the Thrissur Pain and Palliative Care Society. “Instead of remaining on ventilator support for days, some of us choose to die as we desire,” he added.
A legal document, the Living Will should be signed in front of a gazetted officer. A copy of the same will be sent to the secretary of the local body where the person resides. A copy will be provided to the nearest family member, like son, daughter, spouse or anyone of that nature.
Dr E Divakaran, director of the Institute of Palliative Care which functions under the society, will also sign the Living Will, along with other volunteers, who include doctors, nurses and professionals from other sectors.
‘Living Will campaign is just a beginning’
“We are living in a death-denying culture. People often consider death as the failure of medical treatment. This perception should change. We hope that events like these will raise more awareness. In the Living Will, there can be different conditions as per a person’s choice -- whether one needs ventilator support for prolonged life, whether one needs to be in the presence of family members in the final moments, etc,” he said.
In a first for Kerala, Jose Babu, a person working in the Pain and Palliative Care sector in Thrissur, wrote his Living Will in 2019.
The move triggered a major discussion among healthcare providers as there was always a debate on the duty of a doctor to sustain the life of a patient. However, the registration department in the state has not yet accepted the registration of the Living Will as other documents, and hence, it cannot be processed through the department.
According to the volunteers, the Palliative Care Society advocates for a quality life for a person and interventions, including palliative surgery, are being made with the same objective.
“This is just a beginning,” said Gokuldas. He said though the importance of ventilator support or intensive care is being promoted by a group of people, there are many cases in which such facilities will not work, and patients, especially aged people or those with terminal illness, should be allowed to die.
Living Will was not legally viable in India until 2018 when the Supreme Court made a historic judgment that year prescribing guidelines to ensure that a person with deteriorating health should be able to execute a Living Will.