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Memo to everyone who fills out a living will: I am a lawyer, not a health care provider. Before you draft a living will, please confer with your health care provider.

It is my understanding that if you put into your living will that you do not want to be rescuscitated, but allowed to die naturally, that the health care providers might not give you water unless you specify that you want it in your living will.

This was told to me by an elderly woman who watched a friend die, and the friend kept begging for water but the health care providers wouldn't give it to her.

So I put in all my living wills that the person wants to be given water, as well as narcotics and other palliative measures, not to prolong life, but so that they will not suffer.

Personally, when I was thinking the usual thoughts about being "a vegetable" and not wanting to have my life prolonged by artificial measures, I didn't think (and don't think) that a feeding tube and water are "artificial measures."

This case has caused me to think about a lot of things and I don't know the answers. Luckily I have a lot of health care providers in my family, with a lot of experience in death, from oncology surgeons to hospice nurses to ER nurses, so I will consult with them before I draft my own living will.