A lawyer who sits on the board of the United Way-funded agency Nidus Personal Resource Planning and Registry says that living wills in B.C. don’t adequately protect end-of-life wishes. A Representation Agreement, however, does. The lawyer was interviewed on CBC Radio’s The Early Edition. “The reality is we do have a good law in British Columbia that lets people make effective personal planning agreements and for health and personal care, and the document is the Representation Agreement,” said Ron Usher, volunteer president of the non-profit Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre and Registry and general counsel at the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia. In the interview, Usher said that “there’s no such thing as a living will” in B.C. However, a Representation Agreement can allow someone to name a representative who can, when they are no longer able to make decisions, do so for them in regard to health and personal care. Usher says Section 9(3) of the provincial Representation Agreement Act gives a representative the right to give or refuse consent to health care necessary to preserve the life of the person they’re representing. Nidus is an expert on Representation Agreements and was instrumental in changing B.C.’s adult guardianship legislation.
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