This article explains a living will (or health care declaration) as a documentation of "a person's wishes concerning [medical] treatment when those wishes can no longer be personally communicated". It says that today's technology offers many different options regarding medical measures that can be taken to prolong a person's life. Many of these options have the potential to make a patient healthy again or at least lenghten his or her life, but they may only prolong the dying process. The patient should tell his or her relatives and caretakers which measures should be taken and which should not before he or she is incapacitated and unable to do so.
Two main scenarios in which a living will would apply are terminal illness and permanent disability. Some terminally ill patients who have only a short time left to live want their doctors to give them any treatment that would lengthen their life, but some are concerned that some of these treatments would be extremely unpleasant and would not restore to them a quality of life that would make it worth living. Regarding permanent disability, some patients close to death would want all measures to be taken to save them from dying, but others would resist this if their life after treatment would be marked by permanent disability. The text stresses that it must be made abundantly clear in which circumstances the patient would refuse or accept treatment. While making a living will, one must be quite sure to address a variety of conditions that might arise.
It is essential for the patient to communicate his or her wishes with as many people as possible, including family, friends, and health care providers, because the law requires evidence in order for the patient's wishes to be carried out. Discussing one's wishes with one's doctor is especially important, because a) the doctor is more likely to carry out wishes that have been told directly to him or her and that have been made clear b) the doctor can help with the decision-making process and make sure that the patient's requests are logical, and c) the doctor can let the patient know if he or she cannot honor the requests for any reason.
DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) Orders tell the health care providers not to restart the patient's heart and breathing should these functions stop. It is essential that the person make it known if he or she does not want to be resuscitated, as the procedure is automatically attempted otherwise, by law.
The main point of this text is that in order to ensure that one's wishes are carried out, it is a good idea to talk to as many people as possible and to consider all possible scenarios that might arise.
