Your Rights

Courtesy of “Living Lessons” ™ - A Joint Initiative of The GlasoSmithKline Foundation and The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

An Ill Person’s Bill of Rights

As a person facing the end of my life, I have the right to:

* Be treated as a living human being until I die.

* Live free of pain.

* Participate in the decisions that affect me and my quality of life.

* Have my decisions and choices respected and followed, even though they may be contrary to the wishes of others.

* Be treated with openness and honesty without deception or half- truths.

* Receive ongoing medical and nursing care even though the goals must be changed from cure to comfort.

* Express my feelings and emotions about my approaching death in my own way.

* Maintain a sense of hopefulness, however changing its focus might be.

* Be cared for by those who can maintain a sense of hopefulness, however changing its focus might be.

* Discuss and enlarge my spiritual and religious experiences, regardless of what they mean to others.

* Be cared for by compassionate, sensitive and knowledgeable people who will attempt to understand my needs and try to meet them.

* Receive support from and for my loved ones in learning how to accept my death.

* Die in peace and with dignity.

A Family Member’s Bill of Rights

As a relative to a dying person, I have the right to:

* Enjoy my own good health without feeling guilty. It is not my fault that someone I love is dying.

* Choose whom I will talk to about my relative’s disease. If someone’s feelings are hurt because I do not wish to answer their questions, it is not my fault.

* Know what is going on in our family, even if I am a child.

* Be told the truth about my relative’s disease, condition and prognosis in words I can understand.

* Disagree or get angry with someone, even if they are dying. Sickness does not stop someone from being human.

* Feel what I am feeling; not what someone else says I "should" be feeling.

* Look after my own needs, even if they do not seem as great as the needs of my dying relative. I can take a "time out" without feeling disloyal.

* Get outside help for my dying relative and family members if we cannot cope by ourselves.

* Get help for myself, even if others in my family choose not to get help.

* Maintain hope, in whatever form that might be. No one has the right to take my hope away from me.

A Caregiver’s Bill of Rights

As a caregiver for a terminally ill loved one, I have the right to:

* Take care of myself. This is not an act of selfishness. It will give me the capability of taking better care of my loved one.

* Seek help from others, even though my loved one may object. I recognize the limits of my own endurance and strength.

* Maintain facets of my own life that do not include the person I care for, just as if he or she were healthy. I know that I do everything that I reasonably can for my loved one; I have the right to do some things just for me without feeling guilty.

* Get angry, be depressed or happy, experience frustration, laugh and cry and express the normal range of human emotions.

* Reject any conscious or unconscious attempts by my loved one to manipulate me through guilt, anger or depression.

* Receive consideration, affection, forgiveness and acceptance from my loved one for what I do for them on a daily basis.

* Take pride in what I am accomplishing and to applaud my own courage in taking on the responsibility for caring for my loved one.

* Protect my individuality and maintain a life for myself that will sustain me once my loved one has passed on.

* Expect and demand that, as government makes strides in finding resources to support afflicted persons, similar strides are made toward aiding and supporting caregivers.