Five Deadly Wishes: Signing Documents (EVERYBODY should read this before entering a hospital)

Catholic Bioethics, Featured ^ | May 16, 2011 | Fr. Basil Cole, O.P.

[Mrs. Don-o]

A legitimate Medical Advance Directive

• Names someone you trust (your "health care agent") to safeguard your life when you cannot speak for yourself
• Names backup agents if your first choice can't serve
• Describes the treatment you do and do not want
• Protects your family and health care agent from pressure by enabling them to prove what you really did want
• affirms your fundamental right to "ordinary care" (nutrition, hydration, pain management, hygienic and comfort care)
• strengthens the assumption that you want life-saving treatment if it is not clearly futile or overwhelmingly burdensome -- and specifies what this means
• preserves your right to refuse futile or burdensome interventions, especially when dying.

A document which actually does this --- and which I recommend --- is the one offered by the NRLC's Powell Center for Medical Ethics, designed with reference to your own state's laws, downloadable here:

http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/StatesList.html

My suggestion? Do it now.

[napscoordinator]

Doesn’t a living will put all this to rest? I love your suggestions but a living will might be needed by every person in America (maybe the World).

[beaversmom]

My mom had surgery in March and they wanted her to fill out a living will. She had already made me in charge in case anything should happen, so I told her to just leave it at that and not fill out the living will. The living will said they could take her off life support after so many days, yada, yada, yada. Personally, I don’t think you are in a position to make those kinds of decisions beforehand. There are too many unknowns.

[yldstrk]

Don’t sign the advance directive unless you don’t mind being starved and dehydrated to death. My advance directive now states as follows: I desire to be fed and hydrated.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Ping-a-ling

[yldstrk]

A “Living Will” is an advance directive. Two interchangeable terms for the same thing.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Thank you for this information and must read. This information should be shared with our email lists.

[anonsquared]

Wouldn’t a simple DNR - do not resuscitate - be sufficient?

[Mrs. Don-o]

The point is that you do need some form of "Advance Direct5ive" or "Living Will," but not the one described in this article, the one called "Aging with Dignity: Five Wishes." It's way too ambiguous, and does not affirm the right to "ordinary care", e.g. the right not to be cut off food and water so you die quickly and badly from starvation/dehydration.

The essential thing is to have a Health Care Proxy who knows quite thoroughly what you would find necessary or unnecessary, tolerable or intolerable. The "piece of paper" is indispensible because it provides evidence. But even the "piece of paper" isn't going to save you, if you don't have a living person there to to actively and intelligently advocate for you.

That's why I recommend the NRLC "Will to Live" document.

[Mrs. Don-o]

No.

[yldstrk]

If you wanna die........yeah.

[DManA]

You can put that into an advance directive. All it does is tell the world what you want done to you if you are incapable of telling them yourself.

You can say keep me on a machine till my flesh rots of my bones if that’s what you want.

[melissa_in_ga]

bookmark for later when I get ink for my printer. Thank you for the article.

[kalee]

We did it earlier this year. Our attorney had never seen the Will to Live so asked us to leave a copy and reschedule our appointment so she could look it over (and determine its legality in our state). When we went back she said she had looked into it and it was legit, (well duh). She then said she had never had anyone do anything other than the regular Living Will and that people usually opted for little intervention so assets would be left for their kids.
She was very interested in our concerns and beliefs on the issues of dying. My husband and I had both lost our mothers within the last 18 months so we had dealt with it recently and had seen the death peddlers in action.

[DManA]

You really can’t blame a hospital for wanting something in writing. If you aren’t in a position to make those decisions before hand you sure as heck won’t be in a better position when it comes down to life and death crunch time.

[Daffynition]

Lots of folks don't want to *face* this element of their end. It should be discussed with immediate family and drawn up with an attorney [no legal zoom] who will know your state's statutes. Advance directives and Durable Power of Attorney. Don't let family [under duress] decide what you really want.

[puppypusher]

Don’t worry about that Obama care will leave you with No decisions to make.Their death panels will do it for you.

Watch out,Here they come.

[Nervous Tick]

The essential thing is to have a Health Care Proxy who knows quite thoroughly what you would find necessary or unnecessary, tolerable or intolerable.

Absolutely correct. The best solution is to assign a medical power of attorney to someone you know and trust (Mrs. Tick in my case) who knows your desires. Far better than any piece of paper that is left to "health care professionals" to "interpret".

COROLLARY: be careful to stay on loving good terms with your medical attorney-in-fact! :-)

I frequently remind Mrs. Tick that it is not acceptable to *remove* my life support before I am actually *on* life support.

[dangerdoc]

Life is seldom as simple as it looks.

If you have ever watched someone taking their last gasps of air dying of cancer, you would realize that the quiet end that comes with dehydration is not the worst fate.

Everybody needs to make their own choices but if my end were cancer I would choose to not receive a gastric tube or IV fluids.

[Matthew James]

bump