This is because courts often discount a person's prior statements when they were made in general terms, in casual circumstances, as a spontaneous reaction to another person's medical treatment or while the person was young and in excellent health.38 Hence, in the absence of formal documentation or of repeated expressions in the setting of formal discussions, courts may find that the patient's wishes were not clearly expressed. The court's finding will sometimes turn on the nature of the life-sustaining measure. For example, some courts are more likely to permit withdrawal of a ventilator than withdrawal of artificial feeding.39 This difference primarily reflects the fact that ventilators are more readily viewed as "heroic" or "extraordinary" than are artificial feedings.