One of the most important documents an individual should have is a living will. If you have a terminal condition, or one which leaves you in a permanently vegetative state, and you do not wish to be kept alive by artificial means, you must have a living will which states this decision.
Living Wills (or the lack there of) have been highly publicized recently. I refer to the attention the media has placed on the unfortunate situation Florida resident Terri Schiavo and her family find themselves in. Had Mrs. Schiavo recorded her decisions regarding end of life care prior to her disabling medical condition, she nor her loved ones would be in court at this time, and she would be getting whatever care she had specified in her living will.
Signing a living will does not mean you will not get the care required should you have an accident, or require surgery which may involve life support for a brief period of time during recovery. Living wills go into effect when you have a condition in which at least two physicians agree, there is no reasonable medical probability of recovery.
If you do not have a living will, you are placing your loved ones or, in the case of having no family members, possibly a guardian or trustee who really doesn't know you, in charge of making end of life care decisions for you. When loved ones are placed in this position, you must understand, it is extremely difficult to even think about pulling a plug on a respirator machine, much less, actually doing so.
Understand that your loved ones are already beyond upset. They have been told by your physician that there is no reasonable medical probability that you will regain your health. They know that it is only because of machines and other life support measures that you are still alive. They know they'll never see you the way they saw you before, and that you'll be unable to live the way you have in the past.
However, until a loved one is able to process this information, they are going through an unprecedented period of turmoil. They may "know" you wouldn't want to "live" like this, but, will they be able to actually make sound judgments on your behalf? What if your loved ones can't bring themselves to grant permission to end these measures, and, don't? You will then be "living" indefinitely, breathing because of a machine, and "eating" through tubes. You won't be up walking around, enjoying your favorite meals, visiting anyone, turning yourself over, able to clean yourself up, brush your teeth, or comb your hair.
You may consider the above paragraph as unnecessarily graphic. I agree, it's horrible to think about being unable to care for oneself, but, this is the reality of remaining on life prolonging support measures indefinitely. I feel, better to be realistic here than remain in a state of denial and find yourself and loved ones in this unfortunate situation.
If this is not what you want for yourself, or your family members, and if you don't want it left up to a guardian who never really knew you or what you wanted, you must have a signed and always up to date, living will.
For more detailed information pertaining to living wills, please go to the following link.
