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"Living Wills
"The problem is that doctors and nurses don't read them. It does not matter how carefully a lawyer may word a living will. It does not matter where the living will draws the line about when you want to be treated and when you don't want to be treated. What the document says is irrelevant.
"Go to any critical care center and you will see handwritten signs by magic marker taped on the door or near the patient saying "Living Will." So on a sheet of typing paper there will only be two words "Living Will." It says nothing else.
"Those two words are short hand to the medical personnel that: "This person does not want to live. If there is any downturn in the condition let him (or her) die." So, for example if there is a heart attack, don't use CPR.
"People and their lawyers think that a living will tells the medical community that you don't want to be kept on a respirator or other expensive lifesustaining emergency and critical care equipment if your organs are shutting down from cancer or some such, or if you are becoming brain dead.
"But people do not know that having a living will and telling the doctors and nurses about it means that they have just given the medical community the green light to provide substandard care and to pay only minimal attention to the patient because this patient wants to die."
Full article (and others) here: Scroll down to "Living Will"
And there it is in a nutshell.