{"id":417,"date":"2013-09-16T15:17:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T19:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tvndy.ca\/?p=417"},"modified":"2019-01-15T19:11:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T19:11:05","slug":"bentley-case-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2013\/09\/bentley-case-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Bentley Case Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Margot Bentley was an elderly woman \u2013 a former nurse \u2013 living at a nursing home operated by Fraser Health in Abbotsford, British Columbia.\u00a0 She was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 1999.\u00a0 In 1991, Ms. Bentley signed a \u201cstatement of wishes\u201d saying she would not want to \u201cbe kept alive by artificial means or \u2018heroic measures\u2019\u201d, or receive \u201cnourishment or liquids,\u00a0[1]<\/a>\u201d if she reached an advanced stage of dementia.<\/p>\n

Ms. Bentley was spoon-fed by the nursing home staff as her illness progressed.\u00a0 Her family claimed she was completely unresponsive, and that opening her mouth to take food and swallow were only reflexes.\u00a0However, Ms. Bentley demonstrated a preference for sweet foods; she was more likely to open her mouth for desserts than main courses.\u00a0 She also refused treatment by a dental hygienist.<\/p>\n

Ms. Bentley\u2019s husband and daughter brought a suit against Fraser Health and the BC government in August of 2013. They hoped to make the nursing home comply with their loved one\u2019s 20-year-old statement of wishes by ceasing to feed her.\u00a0 However, the nursing home and government said that the institution had a duty to provide \u201cpersonal care\u201d \u2013 including food.<\/p>\n

Anti-euthanasia advocates noted that someone with an advanced directive has the ability and right to change their mind about its contents. Without another means of communication, eating was the best way for Ms. Bentley to state her current wishes. The court judgment agreed, concluding that the woman is capable of communicating \u201cthrough her behavior when she accepts nourishment and liquids.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Bentley died<\/a> in November of 2016.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Bentley v. Maplewood Seniors Care Society, 2014 BCSC 165, https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/bc\/bcsc\/doc\/2014\/2014bcsc165\/2014bcsc165.html<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n
\nA summary of the Bentley court case in British Columbia\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Bentley Case Summary”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Bentley Case Summary”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[268,264,265],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-court-cases","tag-bentley","tag-case","tag-summary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4048,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/4048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}