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JSchaaf
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I've been praying for all parties involved, and especiallyfor Terri. I feel that's all I can do, because I really don't know all the specifics of the case and the legal system. But I have learned one thing-we all need to have a Living Will and/or Healthcare Power of Attorney. We need to discuss our specific wishes with family members (not just your spouse!) and have a plan in writing. I have a Living Will, but I am going to videotape myself reading it and get copies of the tape to my parents, my sister, and my family MD. I completed my Living Will/Health Care Power of Attorney before I had my last baby. The hospital gave me the forms, I don't know if this is something you can do at home. I think the POA needs to be notarized. I tried to google the subject but was overwhelmed! Maybe someone else has more specific advice on how to accomplish it. Anyway, no one wants to think about these things, but I feel it's something everyone needs to do. Just my $.02!
Jennifer
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MicheleQ
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JSchaaf wrote:
| I've been praying for all parties involved, and especiallyfor Terri. I feel that's all I can do, because I really don't know all the specifics of the case and the legal system. But I have learned one thing-we all need to have a Living Will and/or Healthcare Power of Attorney. We need to discuss our specific wishes with family members (not just your spouse!) and have a plan in writing. |
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Hi Jennifer!
Here's an article from the American Life League that brings up things to consider with a Living Will. I must say it was an eyeopener for me. God bless!
END OF LIFE CARE
Should I sign a ‘living will’?
If you or a loved one have entered a health care facility in the last few years, chances are you’ve been asked to sign some sort of “Living Will.” This document, which supposedly enhances a person's power to refuse unwanted medical intervention at the end of life, isn’t the “safe and simple” legal solution its proponents make it out to be.
Before signing a Living Will, you need to know some important facts--facts that could mean the difference between life and death.
Euthanasia advocates formulated the Living Will
The Living Will was suggested at a meeting of the Euthanasia Society of America (now called Choice in Dying) in the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s, the Society's educational arm had distributed three quarters of a million copies. Euthanasia advocates publicly admit that the Living Will was instrumental in promoting societal acceptance of euthanasia.(1)
Living Wills are vague and oversimplified
Although proponents claim that these documents allow patients more decision-making power, Living Wills, because of their vague language, actually give that power to doctors. These doctors may not know the patient or the patient’s medical history--let alone his/her specific wishes regarding end-of-life care.
Most Living Wills contain a statement such as: “If I should have a terminal illness and I am unable to make medical decisions, I direct my attending physician to withhold or withdraw medical treatment that prolongs the dying process and is not necessary to my comfort or to alleviate my pain.”
On the surface this statement may sound clear. However, it leaves many questions unanswered such as: What is a “terminal illness”? Who is an “attending physician”? What is “medical treatment”? All of these crucial terms are open to wide interpretation.
“Terminal illness” may be defined as one that, with or without treatment, will cause death. Is the time-frame for this terminal condition one month? One year? Two years?
One definition within Veterans Administration guidelines defined terminal illness as a “debilitating condition which is medically incurable and which can be expected to cause death...and includes but is not limited to conditions where death is imminent, as well as chronic and debilitating conditions from which there is no reasonable hope for recovery.”(2) Under such guidelines, ordinary medical treatment could be withheld from patients with ailments such as heart disease and diabetes!
Is an “attending physician” the physician whom you just met, who knows nothing about your medical history? In the course of one day in a hospital, you could see as many as three “attending physicians.”
Does “medical treatment” include such basic necessities as food and water? Courts have ruled that food and water may be considered “medical treatment.”(3)
These vague statements are open to interpretation and definition--not by you (the patient), but by others.
How you feel when you sign a Living Will may be different than how you will feel when you actually need care
When a healthy person signs a Living Will, he or she may be thinking about wanting to die a peaceful death when the time comes--without ineffective or gravely burdensome (extraordinary) treatment.(4) However, once a Living Will is signed, there is no way to control how its instructions will be carried out. Physicians also have recognized this problem saying, “Patients may find it difficult to understand all the medical issues [at the time of signing a Living Will] or they may change their decisions. Moreover, the clinical circumstances may be different from what the patient anticipated, making it necessary to adapt the patient’s explicitly stated preferences to the actual situation.”(5) But if you are unable to communicate your exact wishes to others at the time you need care, the broad, vague statements in the Living Will may speak for you!
You are not required to sign a Living Will or any other advance directive
Some people are under the impression that federal law requires you to sign a Living Will. This is false!
In 1991, the federal Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) went into effect. This law requires most health care facilities and programs that participate in Medicare or Medicaid to share information about advance directives such as Living Wills with all adult patients.
However, you are not legally bound to sign any document! You may not be denied health care for refusing to sign an advance directive.
Signing a Living Will is not a simple matter, nor is it necessary. In fact, your Living Will could become your death contract.
You already have the legal power to control decisions surrounding your health care. No law or ethical standard requires you to accept completely ineffective or gravely burdensome measures to prolong your life. Even without a Living Will, you are still in control.
But, you must exercise this control properly. The absolute sanctity and inherent quality and equality of every human life requires us to use ordinary means of medical treatment and care to preserve our lives. In contrast, the Living Will shares the philosophy of the euthanasia movement that certain lives don't need to be preserved because of their so-called "low quality." To the extent that a Living Will allows the omission of ordinary means, it reflects this philosophy and can lead to the practice of euthanasia (an act or omission that of itself or by intention causes death).
It is important to talk about your wishes for end-of-life care with your physician and family members. It is also necessary, especially today in an environment of health care cost-cutting and discriminatory "quality-of-life" judgments, to take measures to protect yourself from euthanasia. A pro-life alternative to the Living Will is available from American Life League.
References
(1) See "History of Euthanasia in U.S.: Concept for Our Time," Euthanasia News, Vol. 1(4), November 1975 (publication of the Euthanasia Educational Council [educational arm of the Euthanasia Society of America]), pg. 3.
(2) Veterans Administration policy guidelines. November 18, 1991. Policy M-2, part 1, Chapter 31, pages 31-32.
(3) See Cruzan v. Director, Mo. Dep't of Health, 110 S.Ct. 2841, 2849-50 (1990) (citing In re Estate of Longeway, 133 Ill. 2d 33, 549 N.E.2d 292 (1989); In re Conroy, 98 N.J. 321, 486 A.2d 1209 (1985)).
(4) For further discussion of ordinary-extraordinary means, consult Life, Life Support, and Death.
(5) Emanuel, Linda and Ezekiel, “Decisions at the End of Life,” Hastings Center Report, Vol. 23(5), September-October 1993, pages 6-7.
__________________
Michele Quigley
wife to my prince charming and mom of 10 in Lancaster County, PA USA
http://michelequigley.com
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JSchaaf
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"It is important to talk about your wishes for end-of-life care with your physician and family members. It is also necessary, especially today in an environment of health care cost-cutting and discriminatory "quality-of-life" judgments, to take measures to protect yourself from euthanasia. A pro-life alternative to the Living Will is available from American Life League."
Very interesting! Then maybe what I wrote/filled out isn't exactly a Living Will-as it is very specific and mostly written by me, my husband and our lawyer! But I will pass this on to family and friends.
Jennifer
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Elizabeth
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Steven W. Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
24 March 2005
Vol. 7 / No. 11
Contact Jeb Bush—And Then Get a ‘Will to Live’ Form
By Joseph A. D’Agostino
Unless Gov. Jeb Bush intervenes, it seems likely that Terri Schiavo will
be murdered by her husband Michael and the state of Florida in time for
the Easter season. (Note: There are no coincidences.) See the end of
this article for a way to contact the governor’s office and urge him to
save Terri’s life, an act legally within his power. Read on now for a way
to prevent what is happening to Terri from happening to you or a family
member. As demographic pressures on child-poor Western nations increase
with the average age of their populations, the elderly and infirm will
face ever-mounting “encouragement” to “die with dignity”—that is, hurry up
and get out of the way. If you are unable to protest, you will surely be
eliminated unless you have clearly expressed your wish otherwise in a
legally valid fashion.
There is no way to guarantee that you will not be executed in a medical
institution since America’s pop culture and health care establishment have
become so pro-death, but signing a “will to live” (a specifically pro-life
living will) is a good step toward protecting your life. Many Americans
have already taken the hint from Terri’s case. “Terri Schiavo didn’t have
a living will. But because of her, thousands of other Americans won’t
make that same mistake,” reported the Associated Press this week.
“Attorneys and organizations that promote the importance of living wills
and advance directives say the bitter legal battle over the severely brain
damaged woman has led many people to put their end-of-life wishes in
writing. . . . Most American adults—estimates are as high as 75%—do not
have written directives for their families to follow.”
Living wills are typically designed to allow doctors to kill you as easily
and quickly as possible. You do not even have to be terminally ill or
brain dead. After all, Terri Schiavo is neither. Respected doctors who
have examined her say the brain-damaged woman has a reasonable chance of a
partial recovery if she undergoes rehabilitation. But her worse half and
the judges won’t allow an attempt. More information about her cognitive
state could be ascertained by an MRI—but she’s never been given one. They
even won’t let Terri’s parents give her a cup of water as she lies dying
without food or fluids.
“Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘terminal’ as ‘of or in the final stages of
a fatal disease,’” the National Right to Life Committee points out. “And
this is what the ordinary person thinks: that somebody who is ‘terminally
ill’ is someone who will inevitably die, whose death cannot be prevented
by medical treatment. But in many states, that is not what it means.
Instead, for the purposes of the living will you are legally in a
‘terminal condition’ even if your life could be saved—so as to live
indefinitely—by medical treatment, so long as you would still have a
permanent disability of some kind.”
This is just one example of the tricks played by the culture of death’s
devotees in state governments and elsewhere. Unless you are an expert in
this area of the law, you need help. The National Right to Life
Committee’s website offers sample “will to live” forms for different
states. Go to www.nrlc.org and click on “The Pro-Life Living Will” box in
the left-hand column, or go directly to
www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/index.html.
A “will to live” directs doctors to save your life rather than terminate
it, and allows you to appoint people you trust as your guardians in case
you are unable to speak for yourself. If Terri Schiavo had a “will to
live,” perhaps her husband, even with the connivance of a pro-death
judiciary, would have been unable to sentence her to death.
Or maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference. “I don’t have one myself,”
says Dr. William Toffler, an Oregon doctor who is national director for
the pro-life Physicians for Compassionate Care Educational Foundation
(www.pccef.org), of a living will or will to live. He said that in his
experience, doctors often ignore them. The most valuable aspect of a will
to live is the appointment of guardians if you are incapacitated. “You
need somebody advocating on your behalf,” he said. “Fortunately, my wife
understands where I’m coming from.” At the very least, though, a
well-written will to live can clearly communicate in writing your wishes.
“Communication is important,” said Toffler. “That has to take place.”
If you have the stomach to read stories of involuntarily euthanized
patients, go to www.hospicepatients.org/euth-center.html.
The last hope for Terri seems to be Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Not only does
he have the obligation to protect the lives of Florida residents such as
Terri, but the Florida state constitution in Article I, section 2 says:
“All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and
have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend
life and liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to
acquire, possess and protect property; except that the ownership,
inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens
ineligible for citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law. No
person shall be deprived of any right because of race, religion, national
origin, or physical disability.”
Terri Schiavo is being denied her right life due to a physical disability.
Gov. Bush should fulfill his duty, enforce the Florida constitution, and
take Terri into protective custody. In addition, the elected
representatives of the people of Florida and this country have tried time
and again to save Terri’s life or at least grant more legal review to her
case, which has never been examined by the federal courts even though they
often review the cases of death row inmates. The courts have ignored a
law passed by the Florida state legislature, appeals from Gov. Bush, a law
and subpoenas issued by the U.S. Congress, and the express will of
President Bush. Has democracy become such a distant memory in America
that now the unelected courts can kill a disabled person contrary to the
wishes of elected representatives, and contrary to the rule of law? Go to
www.terrisfight.org for more information about judges’ legal errors in
this case.
Terri’s case will set a precedent that we will rue for all time. We will
leave you with the words of Peggy Noonan in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Our children have been reared in the age of abortion, and are coming of
age in a time when seemingly respectable people are enthusiastic for
euthanasia. It cannot be good for our children, and the world they will
make, that they are given this new lesson that human life is not precious,
not touched by the divine, not of infinite value.
“Once you ‘know’ that—that human life is not so special after all—then
everything is possible, and none of it is good. When a society comes to
believe that human life is not inherently worth living, it is a slippery
slope to the gas chamber. You wind up on a low road that twists past
Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz. Today that road runs through
Pinellas Park, Fla.”
Please urge Gov. Jeb Bush to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody,
especially if you live in Florida. Call his office at (850) 488-4441 or,
if that’s busy, 850-488-5603 or e-mail jeb.bush@myflorida.com. When I
called and politely asked that Gov. Bush take Terri into protective
custody, they hung up on me. I take that as a sign that people are
getting to them.
Joseph A. D’Agostino is Vice President for Communications at PRI.
__________________
Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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JSchaaf
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Thank you! I am so much more educated now-and dh and I will be doing the "Will to Live" rather than the "Living Will". How many other people have signed living wills thinking that their wishes will be honored when in fact it may be the other way around?
Jennifer
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: One more thing about Terri S.
