Regarding the first one you talked about with the will, where you say, “I wouldn't want my life maintained artificially”, sometimes you're not on a ventilator and you don't need resuscitation but unfortunately you linger in that near vegetative state, for want of a better phrase. That's what some people are saying. My father says that's fine with him, that he doesn't mind because he's not going to know any better then.
My dad would say that's fine. For me, I would say no, so the only way I'm going to get that death hastened is with a physician-assisted death. We're saying that's going to be allowed for me if I make it clear in an advance directive what, for me, would qualify as “intolerable suffering”. But again, our committee has said that we've made a decision, and it's only if you already have the diagnosis. Here's a good example. If I have an advance will and I have a stroke tomorrow, I'll survive the stroke, and I might not have any capacity to speak or recognize my family, but I'm not dying either. That's too bad, but I can't get a physician-assisted death because I didn't have the diagnosis before I lost competency.
Do you see?