Living Wills are defined as that which ‘contains your written instructions about what level of medical treatment you want in the event that you are unable to express your wishes verbally’ (CBC News Online. March 22, 2005. Living Wills: FAQs. Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from website http://www. cbc. ca/news/background/wills/). Living Wills therefore are considered as the wishes of persons who are unable to converse their desires during those moments of their lives wherein they are too weak, unsound or unstable to verbally communicate them.
This specifically pertains to the medical aspect of the treatment that these people wish to receive. This document is very important because it allows those people around the ailing patient to respect the wishes of the latter as to whether or not he still wants to undergo further treatment or to just be left alone after a certain procedure without submitting to other treatments. For example, a patient can specify that after a heart attack he do not want to be revived anymore.
This living will allows a person to experience fully his freedom and right to live. Although there may be other groups who would argue that there are ethical considerations to this, the validity of the living will has been held upheld. Thus, living wills which carry the wishes of a patient should be respected and followed. A living will may also contain wishes such as what organs to donate after the death of a person and to whom these organs should be given.
The manner by which a living will comes into existence begins wherein a person who has the legal capacity to contract, meaning he should be of age would write down his desires, instructions or wishes pertaining to the medical treatment that he would like to receive. The person would then name a specific individual tasked to carry out these desires in the event that the patient is in no position to verbally communicate these matters. The contents of a living will could be motivated by different factors.
For instance, the will may contain an instruction that the patient does not want to receive any major operation in connection with his sickness because of budget or financial constraints. The other factors may also be emotional, age or physical considerations. A person who has no living relative or family member can easily decide to refuse seeking further medical treatment since there can be the thought that he or she has no reason for living.
Further a patient who is in his early 20’s would also decide differently from a patient in his late 70’s. From these concepts, we can get the idea that living wills are not necessarily associated with death or old age. Living wills are executed in anticipation of a worse case scenario where a person is unable to communicate what he wants to be done with his health. The situation of sickness, death or accident chooses no one, thus, it is best to be prepared for any contingency through a living will.