[neverdem]

I've said it before and I will say it again because it is true. Your "Living Will" (really Advance Directive) won't save you. I will make legal mincemeat out of anything like that in court as long as I can pile up enough unchallenged hearsay evidence and have the ear of a sympathetic (and probably conflicted) jurist. That is the real and dangerous precedent that the Schivao travesty of justice set, and is conveniently ignored by the "Kill Terri" crowd (because in this case they got their wish for Terri to be killed).

Does having the durable power of attorney for health care mean that you have to retain a lawyer that you trust? 8^)

[legendofamind]

I think it means that your fate is no longer in your own hands, at least as far as earthly powers go. Admission of hearsay evidence and allowing it to be decisive in a case of life and death sets a legal precedent that puts everyone in danger.

But, more fundamentally, I am old enough to remember a time in this country when you didn't need a piece of paper to stay alive. The right of a person to live the life they were granted by a power beyond the ken of mortal man, even if it meant living that life under difficult circumstances, was an unalienable right. That Schiavo case has eroded this concept, perhaps irreparably.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Ping re post 4