Living Wills Are a Necessity
The tragedy of Mrs. Schiavo, who is severely brain damaged and is in her seventh day without food or water exemplifies why everyone should consider a living will. Schiavo has been hospitalized, bedridden and unable to speak or feed herself since 1990, when she suffered heart failure linked to an eating disorder. The courts have consistently agreed with doctors hired by Michael Schiavo and appointed by the court who have concluded that the 41-year-old woman is in a persistent vegetative state.Schiavo's feeding tube was removed March 18 after a years-long fight by her husband, Michael Schiavo, who has argued she had said, before her illness, that she would not want to continue living if she were in such a condition. Schiavo's parents have fought to have the feeding tube restored. They argue that their daughter never made such a right-to-die declaration and that she would not want to be, in their words, "starved to death." This worsening legal and emotional fracas could have been avoided if the families drafted a living will long before Schiavo ended up in the hospital.
A living will is a legal document in which a person expresses in advance his or her wishes concerning the use of artificial life support, to be referred to should the person be unable to communicate such wishes at the end of life. A living will usually goes into effect only when two physicians certify that a patient is unable to make medical decisions and that the patient's medical circumstances are within the guidelines specified by the state's living-will law. Typically, living wills are used to direct loved ones and doctors to discontinue life-sustaining measures such as intravenous feeding, mechanical respirators, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation that the patient would reject were he or she able. Without clear and convincing evidence of a person's wishes, life support may be continued indefinitely because of hospital policies, fear of liability, or a doctor's moral beliefs, even if the family believes the patient's wishes would be otherwise.
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