Let me live with my Fantasy Wife before I die
Court Order to Medically Induce a Coma for Colin Simpson: He started fantasising about his work secretary after his childhood sweetheart jilted him…
My client, Colin Simpson, is a seventy-eight year-old terminally ill gentleman. His consultant estimates he has about six months to live. Recently, after an operation, he was put into a short induced coma to give his body a chance to recover from any trauma. When he came out of the coma he asked to see me.
Mr Simpson never married. It turned out his childhood sweetheart jilted him at nineteen, and he threw himself into his career to try and move on. This helped, but because he worked so many hours he didn’t make the time or possess the inclination to nurture another relationship, in the romantic sense.
He started fantasising about his work secretary, Gemma, yet never plucked up the courage to approach her, and soon she left the company. However, Colin’s fantasies continued. If you think about someone often enough they eventually start to appear in your dreams and this is precisely what happened to Colin. He imagined a whole other world which he inhabited with Gemma. Over the years they married and had children, who went on to have children themselves.
The trouble was, when Colin went to sleep, he was not guaranteed to encounter his fantasy family. Often a week or more would go by without any dreams at all, or with other visions filling his unconscious mind. When Gemma next appeared, she would always welcome him with open arms, as if he was returning from travelling — asking how his work trip had been and suggesting he should consider retiring now they were both older.
No friends or family have ever visited him in hospital. He hasn’t really got any. For Colin, the coma not only helped him recover from the operation, it also enabled him to live in his fantasy-family dream world constantly. In addition, he told Gemma he had finally retired. The children and grandchildren came to visit them in their lakeside cottage, and he was as happy as he had ever felt.
After the doctors brought him round, a severe depression took hold. As much as he tried, he could not, and still cannot, get back to Gemma in his dreams. Colin is bereft, concerned she will be worried about him.
He requested that I consult with the hospital board to see if it would be possible for him to be put back into a coma to be with the people he loves for the short remainder of his life. The hospital replied this was not something to which they could agree. This leaves me with no other choice than to seek a court order on his behalf.
I implore you Judge Reader to find for the plaintiff and let Colin Simpson live out his final days happily, with those he sees as his loving family. It is the humane thing to do.
So, dear reader. What would your decision be?
Another from May More
And one from Bob Merckel
