A new study co-authored by UC Irvine professors Peter Ditto and Elizabeth Loftus shows that living wills may not be as effective in honoring individual’s final wishes as previously thought. To carry out this research, Ditto and Loftus selected over 400 individuals above the age of 65 for the group’s project.
“We got people that we knew and actually asked them three times to speak their wishes for different kinds of life-extending treatment,” Ditto said. “We would do that and … ask them to come back a year later and ask the same questions … then we looked to see … how accurate they were in sensing that [their answers] changed.”
Roughly one-third of the group changed their decisions in regards to such treatments as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and being dependent on a feeding tube used to extend their lives. Of these individuals, 75 percent falsely remembered that their new views were consistent with their original choices............
Study Challenges Validity of End-of-Life Treatment Decisions
8mm