A Living Will

A Living Will - do you have one?

A Living Will, also known as an Advanced Health Care Directive, allows an individual to specify directives as to the course of treatment to be carried out by caregivers should the individual become unable to give informed consent due to incapacity. I encourage you, the reader, to gain a complete understanding of the importance of having such a document before making the decision to create it. I would like to offer a scenario in which you replace the mentioned persons with yourself, your family members, and your loved ones.

Terri Schiavo. A 26 year-old female collapsed in her kitchen for reasons still undetermined. She spent the next fifteen years, until her death, in medical facilities being nourished via a feeding tube. Whether or not she was brain dead throughout those fifteen years is a topic which has been rigorously discussed and debated by people on both sides of the fence. Our purpose is not to make a determination in the Terri Schiavo case; our purpose is to realize the importance of having a living will should we suddenly become victim of any unforeseen tragedy.

Now, let's place you in a similar situation as Terri. Please take a moment to think of those people you hold near and dear. Now, split them into two groups in your mind. The first group believes with all its heart the right thing to do is keep you alive, even if brain dead with virtually no hope of recovery. The second group believes with equal passion and conviction you would never want to be kept alive by artificial means under such circumstances.

Would it be your desire for the members of these two groups to become bitter and form hatred for each other in a battle to determine what they guess you would have wanted? In all honesty, this is not a fair way to allow those who love you to deal with their grief of losing you. This seems overly senseless when ways exist to prevent this guessing game from having to be played by loved ones.

A Living Will, or Advanced Health Care Directive, is easy and inexpensive to obtain. An individual has the option of hiring an attorney to devise this document, which may prove to be a bit more costly than the other option of devising it one's self. I chose to do my own and it cost me less than one dollar. Multiple resources lay just inches in front of us, so to speak, on the Internet, that offer the proper state form for free or for mere pennies on the dollar. Depending on your state of residency, this legal document may have to be notarized by a Notary Public. Some states only require the signature of two witnesses. This document does not have to be filed with any certain agency; you keep it safeguarded in the location of your choice.

I no longer worry about my loved ones having to face the dilemma of deciding what I would have wanted. I have it all on paper; my loved ones will be able to spend quality time with me without added, unnecessary stress, if I were to become unable to state my wishes on my own. Although this document is inexpensive to obtain, its worth is priceless. I urge every person who has at least one loved one to seriously consider creating a Living Will.

FREE Advanced Health Care Directive forms and instructions are available for all states and the District of Columbia online or via U.S. Mail through Caring Connections, a program of the 501(c)(3) non-profit NHPCO (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization). They may also be reached toll-free by calling [phone] or on the Web at http://www.caringinfo.org/