[wagglebee]

The Act, condemned by its critics as "back door euthanasia", allows people to write living wills which tell doctors to withdraw life-sustaining treatment if they become too ill to speak for themselves.

And if it works in the UK, the culture of death will try it in the United States and everywhere else.

[wagglebee]

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[NonValueAdded]

Be afraid! be very afraid ... this is the ultimate solution to the Medicare / Soc Sec problem. And with the estate tax back in full force, the gubermint will be there right alongside the grasping relatives.

[muir_redwoods]

"The Act, condemned by its critics as "back door euthanasia", allows people to write living wills which tell doctors to withdraw life-sustaining treatment if they become too ill to speak for themselves."

I have a living will. I've seen what happens when someone is a victim of extraordinary medical intervention. No one should be forced to accept medical care if he or she has made clear what to do in such a situation.

[ConorMacNessa]

I have a living will. It says I refuse to die one nanosecond before the Lord is ready to take me.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

[decimon]

Desperately ill patients will be at risk of being killed off by friends or relatives under "living will" laws, officials admitted yesterday.

Shades of tontine.

[yldstrk]

I keep trying to tell people the other side—with a living will you can specify to use all means possible to keep you going...............

[Secret Agent Man]

This is why you get a “Health Care Power of Attorney” drawn up instead of a “Living Will”.

Living wills allow doctors to make decisions regardless of family wishes.

Health Care Power of Attorney gives someone you trust (and tell what you want them to do in case they cannot) the ability to tell the doctor what to do or not do.

[Popocatapetl]

This seems to be paradoxical. That is, why would anyone in their right mind write a living will giving someone they don’t trust control over their life?

There is a big difference between actively ending a life and passively allowing a life to end. If I am grievously mauled in body and mind, I have no great objection to being allowed to die by being denied sustenance, especially if failing to do so means that my family will be impoverished. I do not cling to my life so much that I want to live on as crippled and reduced of mind. I would probably find no objection in the use of more active measures, either, at least for myself, if less discomfort was involved.

And I do not want my family enslaved to my shell.

I object as well that any outsider would seek to impose on me the continuation of life I despised. Such an action would be as repulsive as their purchasing the services of a thug or killer to injure me.

Their beliefs and desires be damned. They are not of my family, and only my family has given me life and nurtured me, so only they have a say in my unfortunate demise.

If such peoples religion demands it of them, then I would encourage my family to hire individuals of a different religion to return the favor to my oppressor’s family, and in an equal or greater manner.

[xJones]

Wagglebee, I'll pay you the compliment of asking a simple honest question, because I wonder what you and others think. If by some tragic reason you or I were left in a persistant vegetative state like Sunny von Bulow or Peggy Railey would you want that kind of life? And I mean a persistant vegetative state that had lasted for years. Forty or more years ago we would have died at the time of the injury, but now we have these machines and devices to keep those bodies warm.

Honestly, would you want to be kept alive like that? Personally, I wouldn't. Let me die and go home to God. Would you want your body to be kept in a permanent vegetative state for many years?

And this ISN'T about euthanasia and killing people, it's a matter of what YOU would personally want. Don't bring Terry Schiavo into because we'll never know what she would have wanted, and we'll always think her husband had been trying to kill her for years.

This is a just a personal question because I'd like to know what you and other Freepers think.

[TAdams8591]

The problems with this law are obvious. The west has become so lacking in wisdom.