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Choices In Preparing For Your Mortality - A Search For Something Better
For The Dying Process
Search For Something Better For The Dying Proces |
Death is like an earthquake: you know it's coming, but you don't know where or when. You know you should prepare for it, but somehow it's easier to put off preparations until tomorrow. Only 15-20% of Americans have signed living wills or advanced directives. Most of us have difficulty coping with the idea of our own mortality, much less preparing for it.
Yet, when you buy life insurance, draw up a will, or make a decision about organ donation, you're acknowledging the inevitability of death. If you don't make all your plans now, some decisions will be made for you, and they might not be what you'd have chosen.
An advanced directive, such as a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (living will), can be used to make some of these choices when you are in good health. Since 1984, it is the most comprehensive document and the most effective for ensuring that your desires regarding health treatment are followed. Such decisions are best made before a crisis occurs, as, at such a time, you may be unable to communicate your wishes.
You designate someone to make decisions about your medical care, including withdrawal of life support, when you are unable to make decisions yourself. You can also indicate your wishes about prolonging life in this document and any other specific desires you have about your medical care, such as limits on nutrition and feeding and/or a request for increased doses of pain medication to limit suffering.
If you don't want to draw up a formal document, you can simply inform your doctor of your wishes, so he can write them into your medical record, or you can talk to your family and/or friends. However, a written document signed by you and witnesses or notarized is the best way to make sure your intentions are carried out.
- Here are some of the treatments you might choose (or reject) in a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (codicils to your medical directive):
-
1. CPR: Chest compressions, electric shock to keep your heart
beating; artificial breathing; using drugs.
2. Mechanical breathing (respirator, ventilator).
3. Feeding and hydration through a tube in your veins, nose or stomach.
4. Kidney dialysis (cleaning the blood by a machine), chemotherapy (drugs to fight cancer), pain medications, or the use of antibiotics.
5. Painful or potentially harmful diagnostic tests - should they be done?
- You may want to include a statement in the document of your
specific preferences about treatment to give your agent and
doctor guidance, or you may want to select one of the general
statements below to reflect your wishes:
I do not want efforts made to prolong my life, and I do not want life-sustaining treatments to be provided or continued: -
- 1. if I am in an irreversible coma or persistent vegetative
state
- 2. if I am terminally ill, and the application of life-sustaining procedures would only serve to artificially delay the moment of my death
- 3. under any circumstances where the burdens of the treatment outweigh the expected benefits, I want my agent to consider the relief of suffering and the quality as well as the extent of the possible extension of my life in making decisions concerning life-sustaining treatments.
- Or
- I want efforts made to prolong my life, and I want life-sustaining treatment to be provided unless I am in a coma or persistent vegetative state, which my doctor reasonably believes to be irreversible. Once my doctor has concluded that I will remain unconscious for the rest of my life, I do not want life-sustaining treatment to be provided or continued.
- Or
-
I want efforts made to prolong my life,
and I want life-sustaining treatment to be provided even if I
am in an irreversible coma or persistent vegetative state.
Sometimes, people know they are going to die and prepare for death by giving directions themselves.
Search For Something Better For The Dying Proces
Life and Death Issues
An Ethical Will
Advanced Directive
Decisions For Making Life Easier For Those You Love! -
The Legacy of Love
Medical Emergency Information -
A Simple Card
Conclusion - Life and Death
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