[M. Dodge Thomas]

Very interesting essay.

I was with the author until this:

"Hospital administrators are generally pleased with bioethicists and the rationalizations they provide for ceasing care of the helpless and the disabled. By the same token, their presence is generally shunned by doctors and nurses, whose medical and moral vocabulary draws from different sources, and whose training and experience have disposed them in a different direction. To most doctors and nurses, in any case, the idea that one can control the manner and pace of one’s dying is largely a fantasy. They have seen what they have seen, and what they know is that at the crucial moments in this process, no document on earth can substitute for the one-on-one judgment, fallible as it may ultimately be, of a sensible, humane, and experienced physician".

At which point I realized that he was asserting that his authority should trump my expressed wishes.

[SJackson]

At which point I realized that he was asserting that his authority should trump my expressed wishes.

I'm not sure. The problem is that we execute documents without making our wishes known to those around us. Sign the paper, but let your kids know, let your pastor or Rabbi know your wishes, in writing. Involve them. In the rare instances this comes up, you can't speak for yourself.