March 22, 2005
Not Even Living Wills Can Guarantee Death
by Liza Sabater
death with dignity * experts: living wills often flawed
The living will, long touted as a way to prevent technology from complicating death and artificially prolonging life, has outlived its usefulness, a growing number of medical and legal experts say.For more than two decades, wary Americans have been using the documents to state their health care preferences in anticipation of a time when they can't do so.
The usual reason for a living will has been to avoid the arsenal of ventilators and feeding tubes that can keep seriously ill patients alive, sometimes in a persistent vegetative state.
But experts say the concept is obsolete.
"It's [the living will] a virtual failure," said Thomas Murray, president of The Hastings Center, a bioethics institute in Garrison, N.Y. "The living will is particularly ill-designed to do what you want it to do. Any tiny crack can be enough to destroy the entire foundation of that document."
Posted by Liza Sabater in Body, Health, Law, Right To Die, Sidelinks
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