Pre-Planned Starvation and Advanced Dementia — Is There a Choice?

Abstract

Canadian Margot Bentley’s thoughts on Alzheimer’s disease were quite clear. In a written statement of her wishes, she said, ‘I want it to be known that I fear degradation and indignity far more than death.’ She repeatedly made her wishes known to her family, verbally and in two written documents. However, judges refused to enforce Mrs Bentley’s directive that food and drink be withheld when the disease progressed to the point that she no longer recognised her family. The reasons for the court’s decision are relevant to Australians who want to pre-plan a death from starvation, in the event that they develop Alzheimer’s and the disease progresses to a pre-determined stage. This paper considers the legislative scheme in Queensland for health care decision-making for a person without capacity and concludes that the outcome in a case with facts similar to Mrs Bentley’s would probably be the same.