Your dealth wish list

Hamish Heard
BARWON Health patients will be able to decide whether they want to die early under a new program unveiled yesterday.
The Advance Care Planning program will give residents an opportunity to say when they would no longer want life-saving medical care.
Barwon Health intensive care director Dr Charlie Corke said the program would enable some terminally-ill patients to avoid slow, painful deaths.
“Think about your grandmother – if she’s in a nursing home and fading with decreasing capabilities, would she want to be put on a ventilator and a kidney machine if she got an overwhelming pneumonia?” Dr Corke said.
“It’s no good leaving that decision until the crisis sets in because when that occurs the patient won’t be able to express themselves.”
Dr Corke said the program was developed in the United States where 25 per cent of people who died in hospital spent long periods in intensive care before death.
Under the program, participants would tell Barwon Health what medical treatment they would want if they became seriously ill and unable to make or communicate decisions.
Participants would complete a written Advance Care Plan with help from trained medical consultants.
The plan would include the appointment of a family member or loved one to have power of attorney to make medical decisions on the patient’s behalf.
“The issue is that with the advancement of medical technology we can do a lot of things to keep people alive but, unfortunately, having this technology can actually work against a patient’s wishes by prolonging death,” Dr Corke said.
He believed it was wrong to draw comparisons between the program and euthanasia or mercy killing.
“This definitely isn’t euthanasia,” he said.
“It’s just about providing care at the end of peoples’ lives that more matches what they wish for themselves.”
Dr Corke said the program was likely to stop many patients seeking euthanasia.
“If the care being provided is unpleasant but you can’t avoid it, that’s why some people seek euthanasia.”