VANCOUVER—The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that a care home in Abbotsford must continue spoon-feeding 83-year-old Margot Bentley.
Her family had filed the appeal, saying that Bentley, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s, would refuse the food and liquids keeping her alive if she could speak.
“I recognize the terribly difficult situation in which Mrs. Bentley’s family find themselves,” wrote Justice Mary Newbury in the ruling March 3. “It is a grave thing, however, to ask or instruct caregivers to stand by and watch a patient starve to death.”
The Maplewood Seniors Care Society has been caring for Bentley since 2009.
The ruling upholds the B.C. Supreme Court’s Feb. 3, 2014, decision, which stated spoon-feeding constitutes basic care, not health care, and that withdrawing food would have caused death by starvation, not by Alzheimer’s.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition had intervened in the case. Dr. Williard Johnston, chairman of its B.C. branch, said evidence showed Bentley was still opening her mouth and consenting to being fed.
“It’s true that many years ago Mrs. Bentley expressed her alarm at the thought of being severely disabled, but should she not have the right to change her mind?”
In a 1991 document, Bentley had written: “If there is no reasonable expectation of my recovery from extreme physical or mental disability, I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or ‘heroic measures.'” She later adds: “no nourishment or liquids.”
Newbury ruled the advance directive was not valid and the statement was unclear and could have been referring to a feeding tube.
“This ruling is quite clear that it’s not legal, it’s not acceptable, to dehydrate someone to death who is not dying,” said EPC head Alex Schadenberg. “That is a very significant decision if you consider people with disabilities or requiring assistance.”
Bentley’s family has not revealed if they will try to take this case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
