A Living Will

Answer 1

There are many people that don’t understand what a living will is. This short guide is written with the intention of helping people understand the basics of what a living will is and what its importance is to people.

A living will is a statement concerning life-prolonging treatment that might be offered in a hospital to keep someone alive even when they are unconscious. The living will has been a subject of great importance over the past few years, as people struggle to make end-of-life decisions for people that are no longer conscious and aren’t expected to live unless kept alive with medical equipment.

Before putting relatives through this situation, many people choose to create a living will that communicates the choice to receive life-prolonging medical procedures or simply to end life when the life can’t exist without life-prolonging equipment such as a ventilator.

The purpose of a living will is to give a medical patient the choice to end life when they are near death and have no hope of recovery. Rather than keep themselves alive through artificial means, a person has the right to specific in a living will that they are not to be given these medical means to stay alive and are instead be allowed to refuse resuscitation.

A living will cannot be created by someone that is incompetent. The person creating the living will needs to name someone that can communicate their wishes in the event that the decision to end life or prolong it occurs.

Physicians have special protection from the things contained in a living will. If a physician doesn’t treat someone with life-saving procedures that are determined to be life-prolonging procedures, there can be no civil or criminal consequences for that doctor.

Many people that choose not to write a living will have the decision made for them, something that might be entirely contrary to their wishes. Someone that wouldn’t want to prolong life might have the decision made for them to prolong life. Someone that would want to be kept alive through artificial means might not be given life prolonging procedures. The person in charge of the situation might not be aware of the wishes of the person.

It’s always advisable to write a living will. It makes your wishes known and legally binding. When a living will is present, families are spared from having to make painful decisions that they are uncertain of.