Suicide (taking one’s own life) is a serious public health problem that devastates individuals, families, and communities. It is the 11th leading cause of death among Americans (Anderson and Smith 2003). Completed suicides are only part of the problem. More people are hospitalized or treated and released as a result of suicide attempts than are fatally injured. While suicide is often viewed as a response to a single stressful event, it is a far more complicated issue. Suicide results from complex interactions between biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors.
Suicide evokes difficult and uncomfortable reactions in most people. Too often, victims are blamed and surviving friends and family members are stigmatized. Consequently, suicide is shrouded in secrecy. This limits the amount of available information that is crucial to suicide prevention activities.
Research over the past several decades has uncovered a wealth of information on the causes of suicide and the strategies to prevent it. Many studies have identified factors that either increase or reduce the likelihood that a person will attempt or commit suicide. CDC is using this information to develop and implement prevention programs to reduce the numbers of attempted and completed suicides.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suicide-overview.htm
Interesting stuff.
The function of living wills is, as far as I can tell, to reduce the courtroom caseload. So, in that sense, a living will "prevents another Schiavo case."
But another point of view is the prevention of dehydrating a patient (otherwise without a prognosis of terminal) to death. Right now, that event happens if the doctor and family agree on that course of action. Living wills can't prevent this occurance, and can't force an agreeing doctor and family to obtain court permission for the dehydration.