Wednesday, April 06, 2005

do it yourself living will

Here's a do-it-yourself generic Living Will that you can use regardless of which state you reside in. We've all seen how important it is to have such an advance directive in place.

I, _________________________ , being of sound mind, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood ethically challenged politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the hypocritical members of the Legislature (State or Federal) enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case.

I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency; it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf.They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

____________________________________ Dated___________________
Signature

____________________________________
Witness

____________________________________
Witness


In all seriousness, everyone needs to have an advance directive in place, and make their wishes known, whatever they may be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update
- Brainwise at Prophet or Madman has a list of Living Will resources.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if I can get that notarized ;)

I just wanted you to know I've got your 5 questions up. Let me know when you've answered them.
Thanks for volunteering!

http://tinyurl.com/4gyz8

Brainwise said...

I have a list of Living Will and End of Life resources posted at my blog.

Anonymous said...

Amen. So to speak.

And along with the living will, a durable power of attorney is very important.

Mira said...

Yeah, it's a humorous way to make a very serious point. Mom emailed it to me, and I nearly spewed on my monitor.

Brainwise - I knew I saw a list of resources on somebody's blog recently, I just couldn't remember whose. Was it my blogroll, or did I get there through some chain of links.... Thanks for the link to your post. I'm also going to point a link your way as an update in the body, in the event folks don't read the comments. :)

Twitter