Barbie’s Bill: Petition launched to make a person’s dying wishes binding

Barbie Duffy was a teacher, a traveller, a tramper, a dedicated solo mum, and the kind of person who would call on locals and drink whisky with the ones who needed company.

She had no intention of living an incomplete life, daughter Louise Duffy said, and she spelt this out in a living will.

But when Barbie suffered a stroke in October 2021, doctors did not follow those wishes. She was kept alive, unable to speak, read or write and with limited comprehension and movement.

“I called the day after mom was admitted and said, this is her worst nightmare, and they were to withdraw fluids and medication … and they were both continued.”

READ MORE:
* The ‘death walker’ who wants you to die beautifully
* Election 2020: First-time voter wants to help others make an informed decision on euthanasia
* Campaigners want binding end-of-life choices allowed for in euthanasia bill

Barbie Duffy died on New Year’s Day last year, 58 days after declining food and eventually water. Had the plan been followed, she would have been moved to palliative care immediately after her stroke and her family would have been spared the pain of watching their mother starve to death.

In an effort to spare New Zealanders from the same situation, Louise Duffy has launched Barbie’s Bill, a petition which aims to make directives legally binding, so a patient’s autonomy, wishes and informed consent are upheld.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can do better,” she said. “You get older – it doesn’t mean you’re not capable. You still know what you want from your life.”

Ultimately, Louise Duffy wants to see a law change which sets up a national register for standardised medical advance directives – sometimes called living wills – and makes them irrevocable.

Advanced care plans, sometimes referred to as living wills, outline a person’s wishes if they experience loss of mental or physical capacity or quality of life.

This can include withdrawing care that would otherwise keep them alive, such as food and fluids.

People who make an advanced care plan must make it clear they made them of their own free will, that they were mentally competent and understood the instructions, but “it’s not clear … that it’s absolutely binding”, Louise Duffy said.

Just as one person’s plan might state they don’t want to be kept alive, another person’s might want to stress they want to live.

“You can say, living as long as possible is important to me and give me everything.”

The petition will be accepted by ACT’s Brooke van Velden in March, then presented to Parliament in early May.