I’ve picked my own coffin... it’s lovely
Right-to-die campaigner on planning final days of her life
A leading right-to-die campaigner has called for a regulated series of steps to allow sick people ro retain control over their final days as she prepares her own living will.
Kate Tobin, who has a severe form of multiple sclerosis, is putting together plans to make it possible for to spend her final days at home.
The former nun and a nurse, 51, has even planned her own funeral. ‘last week we picked out the coffin,’ she said. ‘It’s lovely. I’m going home to lismore to be buried.’
speaking ahead of her appearance on RTÉ’s Ray D’Arcy show last night, Ms Tobin is campaigning for the full implementation of the 2015 Assisted Decisionmaking (Capacity) Act.
It allows people to create a living will. such a document would give people the right to decline in advance certain treatments. The legislation does not allow for a sick person to ask for drugs that will hasten the end of his or her life.
Her already-severe form of Ms has worsened rapidly since November, leaving her almost wholly dependent on her carers.
she believes that pending an assessment by a psychologist, people who are as ill as she is should be allowed to die. ‘I am going to die – they are hard words to say,’ Ms Tobin said. ‘I am going to do this the medical way.’
The Act was signed in December 2015 and has been partially commenced. The Department of Health said it is expected to be next year before every section of the Act is fully commenced.
Ms Tobin, who lives in a council-adapted house in Wexford, said: ‘I have all the legislation, and I’m getting a legal advocate. I want to die at home, but if I end up in a hospital all they’re required to do is keep me pain-free and call me by my name. I don’t want to be fed artificially and I don’t want to be resuscitated.’
Asked if she was nervous about appearing on TV, she said: ‘No. If even one person who is dying realises that this Act can allow them a way to follow, that they can be prepared to make these decisions, I’d like them to know about this.’