Let’s talk about living and ‘living wills’
suggesting they don’t matter. Children, grandchildren and their spouses regularly maltreat parents and grandparents. And with social isolation and a misplaced sense of family pride, the elderly suffer in silence. Depending on their social status and access to money, elders are neglected, disrespected, ill-treated, denied food, denied medicines, beaten up, threatened and even thrown out of their own homes. They are abused at home by their families, in hospitals by caregivers and in public spaces by utter strangers. So the fear that a property-hungry family will misuse the living will and nudge their elders to an early departure is very real.
To prevent that we must raise awareness and change social attitudes. We need supervision in hospitals and in homes for the elderly. We need to boost activities, social networks and clubs for seniors. Family situations need to be supervised too — perhaps by caregivers who visit the homes of the elderly, and assess, raise awareness or raise an alarm, if necessary? Cutting across class, we could be friends to elders in need. We could regularly visit the elderly and infirm in our neighbourhood, in our friends’ and family circles. Isolation and low self-worth allows abuse. As responsible citizens, we could try to stop that.
Third, a medical panel having the last word on execution of the “living will” isn’t foolproof. Medical panels almost always side with doctors — even when there is malpractice. We have no reason to trust their
We do need to respect the right to live with dignity. A living will would certainly help. But we need much more. Abuse of the elderly is rampant in India, even as we tout our traditional respect for old people. objectivity here. We have many dedicated and excellent doctors, but in general our medical profession is not in great shape. Apathy rules. Most medical institutions are either overcrowded and short on resources, or are money-making machines that shamelessly fleece patients and their families. Each of us knows of people who have been put through unnecessary procedures to make money, of braindead patients kept on ventilators, irreversibly comatose patients kept alive on machines, plunging their families deep into debt and financial ruin. Customarily, doctors hang together, so can we always trust medical panels to take ethical decisions on withdrawing medicallyprofitable life-support systems?
Fourth, a “living will” debate must give serious thought to universal medical care, to making life-saving care more affordable for all, to improving public healthcare.
Finally, we must never forget that the patient — however old, infirm or debilitated — is a human being, whose right to choose a dignified life before an inevitable death must not be overruled by logistical convenience.
Maybe living wills can never be totally safe. In an increasingly selfabsorbed society, the vulnerable can be led to believe death would be preferable to the miserable, lonely lives they lead. To counter that, we must reach into our social fabric and touch the cords that connect us, that add a little humanity to our rushed and aspirational lives, and lend a hand to the infirm. We must reinforce our social support systems, with or without the government. Because to help prevent misuse of living wills, we must strengthen each other’s will to live.
The writer is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: antaradevsen@gmail.com