The Editor, Re: "Let Bentley live," Letters, August 21.
It is precisely because people want to have control over their dying days that they create "living wills," also known as "advanced directives."
The last thing they want is to have self-righteous busy-bodies, who feel they, and only they, know what is best for everybody, interfering with their wishes.
They may not want to suffer in agony for weeks and months or lay in bed being kept alive when they have long passed any consciousness, slowly deteriorating from any recognizable person they used to be.
People discuss these situations with their loved ones well in advance of their dying and expect that their wishes will be fulfilled, and families can and will carry them out.
Alan Halliday
Richmond
