Starving Herself To Death

New Zealand woman starving herself to death, Mar. 24, 2010.

A disabled woman starving herself has the legal right to choose to die, experts say.

Margaret Page, 60, has not eaten for 10 days and has drunk only a small amount of water.

Her husband, separated from her for 12 years, wants her put in hospital and forced to eat. But three psychiatric assessments have found she is lucid and cannot be forcibly treated.

Mrs Page suffered a cerebral haemorrhage 20 years ago and has been living at St John of God, a Wellington care home, since 2006.

She went on hunger strike last October but began eating after seven days.

She cannot speak well but was able to indicate "yes" and "no" to questions from the The Dominion Post yesterday.

Asked if she had deliberately stopped eating again, she nodded. She affirmed that she had made that decision because she no longer wanted to live.

She had been thinking about trying to die for a long time.

It was not hard to make the decision to starve herself. She agreed that her family was upset she was starving herself, but everybody except her estranged husband, Barry Page, supported her decision.

Her daughter has enduring power of attorney but is legally unable to make decisions for Mrs Page unless she is incapable of making them herself. Since she stopped eating, Mrs Page has been assessed three times by psychiatrists, including twice by crisis specialists. They have found her mentally competent, so cannot "section" her under the Mental Health Act.

Mr Page, who still visits her, says St John was passively supporting her decision.

"There's been nothing done to dissuade her. They've certainly attempted to tell her [she will die] but there hasn't been strong reinforcement."

However, St John chief executive Ralph La Salle said the home had done everything in its power to convince Mrs Page to eat. But it was legally restricted by her right to choose to die.

"We've made sure that we've continued to offer [food] and even now we ask if it's still something she wants to do. We've done everything we can."

She was getting weak and St John was arranging hospice care for her, he said.

Otago University's Professor John Dawson, an expert in mental health law, said the care home appeared to have complied with legal obligations. "The first obligation of the rest home under the law is to have her assessed, with a view to having her committed. If that's happened and they've decided she's not committable ... and this is just a voluntary attempt to die, then it's much more complicated – there's no power to treat her forcibly."

The Bill of Rights Act recognised a person's right to refuse treatment, he said.

"To force food on someone is actually an assault on them.

"I sympathise with [Mr Page] deeply but his daughter may not have the power to make these decisions either."

It was not uncommon for people to refuse food and drink if they were about to die, but attempting suicide by starvation was rare, he said.

Dignity New Zealand Trust founder Lesley Martin, a euthanasia campaigner who served eight months in prison in 2002 for attempting to kill her mother, said she had been approached by Mrs Page's daughter at the weekend.

Doctors, the care home and Mrs Page's family supported her right to die and the only person opposing it was Mr Page, Ms Martin said.

An otherwise healthy person can survive for up to six weeks without food, although this drops to about 10 days if they are also not drinking.

Dignity New Zealand has drafted a Death with Dignity Bill, which would legalise assisted suicide, but needs an MP to sponsor it.

Similar legislation was voted down in Parliament in 1995 and 2003.

By Kate Newton, The Dominion Post, via stuff.co.nz