The living will was absolutely declared valid.... it was almost worshipped by the health care establishment. The problem in SC is the ADULT HEALTH CARE CONSENT ACT. It was the only law that anyone seemed to care about. It lists the people that have the right to make health care decisions for one who is not capable, in their order of priority. Spouse is way up there and there was no one with the guts to question her decisions because of that law. At one point, my mother asked the Long Term Care Ombudsman if she had the right to disconnect his ventilator. The Ombudsman said she did, and she declared that she would do just that WITH A SMILE OF VICTORY ON HER FACE!!! Now wouldn't you think that the ombudsman might just question what the heck was going on? Nope -- living will and the Adult Health Care Consent Act. Mind you, the ombudsman didn't even question whether or not he may be capable of making his own decisions, even though we strenuously told her that he could.
On another occasion, I sat with Kevin Ginn, the CEO of the nursing home. What documents did he have on his desk? -- living will and DNR. He didn't bother with the affidavits showing that Dad revoked the living will.
The living will document is scripture the Death Merchants in the health care establishment. Unbelievable but true.
Yep, I've come to think of Living Wills as Death documents and not a thing more. Death merchants don't belong in the healthcare industry, but they are there. They came while we weren't paying attention.
What is bothering me so much is the fact that when my mother moved up here from Florida, she was told by our attorney that the Living Will she had in Florida would not stand up her in South Carolina - that it was not considered a legal document.
This was in the mid ninties when she had checked out the validity of it.