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Living Wills Can Help In Hard TimesJanuary 16, 2005 Estate Planning
Q: My family and my doctor have been pushing me to sign a living will. I'm not comfortable signing a living will at this time. Do I really need one, or is this something I can do without?
A: Living wills are fairly common documents included in the typical estate plan. As you know, a living will is an advance medical directive that a person can execute regarding the type of care they want to receive in the event they are terminally ill -- their death will occur within a short period of time and the receipt of medical care will only prolong the dying process.
In the event a doctor certifies all of these conditions, you have the right to refuse to receive medical care with the exception of care that will provide comfort such as medication used to control pain. The state of Indiana also allows you to refuse to receive forced food and hydration.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the advanced medical directive. The reason is simple. The advanced medical directive makes your wishes known when decisions are being made whether or not to allow you to pass. Let's face it folks, it's your life and these are your decisions.
Some of you may be thinking that the chances of needing a living will is pretty remote. I disagree with that point of view. With the advances in medicine, I think it is likely that each of us is going to have to face this decision for a loved one at some point in our lives. Although medicine can do amazing things, I think each of us should decide for ourselves whether we want it.
About two years ago, I wrote a column about my family having to deal with this same issue. My mother was on a ventilator and didn't leave a living will. My family had to make the decision to remove her from her ventilator in an ICU waiting room.
Trust me when I tell you it was the worst decision we had to make in our lives. I was nineteen, and I was deciding whether my mother should live or die.
Here is another reason to think about these things. Two-and-a-half years ago, my wife and I were in a hospital waiting to go into surgery to deliver our twin sons. While the hospital prepared my wife for the C-section, a hospital representative presented my wife with a living will form. The employee explained the form and asked my wife if she wanted to sign it.
Now don't get me wrong, it was considerate of the hospital to offer this information. However, my wife had just been through ten hours of labor in which she had threatened my life on several occasions. I'm not sure she was in an emotional place to make a decision like that. Fortunately we had addressed this issue in our estate plans years before.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't care what side of the fence you stand on when it comes to receiving medical care. I only want you to think about it. And make your views known to the people who will likely be there when a decision needs to be made.
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