The living will

There is no age limit for anyone to become severely ill. Anyone can be faced with a life threatening illness or an accident at any age and can become in a state that cannot speak for themselves. In such situations our life will be in the hands of others. We might be put to death when we wished to be resuscitated or we might be kept alive with life-supporting machines when we wished to be dead. A living will can save anyone from such a dilemma. With a living will we can make the final decisions for ourselves in a life ending situation without depending on others mercy.

Living will is a part of advance directives which tells the doctors what kind of care anyone wish to have in an end of life situation. The abscense of a living will can create unwanted turmoils in the families. The best examble is Terry Schiavo's case in Florida. 41 year old Terry Schiavo, after creating an intense legal conflict and a vast press coverage died in 2005 two weeks after the removal of her feeding tube which had kept her alive since 1990. There was no clear evidence for what her real wish was. The husband says that she mentioned sometimes during their married days that she never wanted to live with the help of life supporting machines. He might be true or might be lying for his own interests. He had some conflicts of personal interests in a large malpractice settlement money and also he was living with a girlfriend whom he cannot marry as long as Terry Schiavo was alive. Since she did not put anything in writing in the form of a living will only she knew what her real last wishes were. I cannot even imagine myself something like this happening to me. I do not think anyone would want to have the court to decide for their fate. With a living will anyone can make their own final decisions by themselves and also can spare their families from tearing apart trying to decide what is the best fate for them.