living wills

[yolland]

My apologies if this info has already been posted. As far as I can tell, it hasn't, and since recent events have caused many around here to ponder this topic for the first time, I wanted to post a couple resources.


http://www.caringinfo.org
Downloadable living will forms for all 50 states, as well as extensive info on the legal processes and considerations involved.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/162/story_16281_1.html
Ditto the above (though less comprehensive)--but what makes this site unique is that it provides links to statements and directives from various Protestant, Catholic, and other religious denominations regarding living wills and related decisions. Catholic hospitals are NOT obligated to honor living wills if their directives go against Church teaching, so it pays to know what Church teaching is, even if you're not Catholic!

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/88-1503.ZS.html
A brief summary of Cruzan v. Director (1990), the Supreme Court case which established both an individual's constitutional right to refuse life support in advance (including feeding tubes), and the rights of individual states to set their own standards for what constitutes evidence of refusal.


Please feel free to add your own links, or to comment on living wills generally. (Just keep any Schiavo references to a minimum, please--I'd rather not see this thread merged into that one...)

 

[wilbur]

Please feel free to add your own links, or to comment on living wills generally. (Just keep any Schiavo references to a minimum, please--I'd rather not see this thread merged into that one...)

I firmly believe that removing her feeding tube was not murder.

CK

 

[indra]

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/162/story_16281_1.html
Ditto the above (though less comprehensive)--but what makes this site unique is that it provides links to statements and directives from various Protestant, Catholic, and other religious denominations regarding living wills and related decisions. Catholic hospitals are NOT obligated to honor living wills if their directives go against Church teaching, so it pays to know what Church teaching is, even if you're not Catholic!

It looks as if pays to know what, if any, denomination the hospitals in your area are, so you know which ones to go to and which to avoid. I would be mighty pissed (even if dying...maybe especially if dying) if a hospital refused to honor my living will. I'd be damned sure to come back and haunt them. And not very nicely either.

 

[U2Bama]

Re: Re: living wills

I'd be damned sure to come back and haunt them. And not very nicely either.

Intriguing. Someone saying "I'd be damned" when making a threat to haunt a religious hospital from the grave sounds like the perfect idea for the opening scenes of a late 80s/early 90s horror flick.

~U2Alabama

 

[indra]

Re: Re: Re: living wills

Intriguing. Someone saying "I'd be damned" when making a threat to haunt a religious hospital from the grave sounds like the perfect idea for the opening scenes of a late 80s/early 90s horror flick.

~U2Alabama

Well, so many people have been telling me I'm going to Hell all my life I figure I might as well get some mileage out of it. Think about it...being haunted by some ghost from heaven would be kind of wishy-washy, but getting a haunted by a soul doomed to Hell would be quite a fright.