Living wills, I'm confused

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Happy2bcatholic

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We are having a formal will drawn up. I was wondering about living wills, as well, if that is a good thing to do or perhaps if there is a good alternative to them. Anyone have any info on this? Thanks.
 
A living will is important to have, especially if you have a medical illness. A living will is sometimes referred to as an “advanced directive”. It is a legal document that expresses your wishes regarding life sustaining medical therapies. The hospital and physicians use this as instructions should you become terminally ill and no longer are be able to make decisions.

You can find more information on Google; but here are a couple fo websites that may be informative:
familydoctor.org/003.xml
wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/research/bioethics/lwill.html
 
As a Catholic, you do not want a Living Will. It would be silly for me to reiterate all of the reasons here when I can give you a simple website to read more about this, here it is:
all.org/endlife.htm

Good luck, this is important stuff to research and decide on now.
 
A living will is a great idea! It allows you to state what you want done for you if and when you can not make the choices yourself. It does not go against the Catholic faith as it allows you to simple state for family, dr’s etc. what you want…your choices can be guided by what the church teaches , what you believe etc.
 
Here is another link for you, please read these links for your own information, a lot of people do not fully understand the Church’s teachings on end of life care, I know I did not until I really researched it for a talk with the Catholic Daughters, who were all very suprised by some things as well.

The document you want instead of a Living Will is called a PROTECTIVE MEDICAL DECISIONS DOCUMENT (PMDD) and you can read about it at the link I gave in this message.
 
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jess7396:
Here is another link for you, please read these links for your own information, a lot of people do not fully understand the Church’s teachings on end of life care, I know I did not until I really researched it for a talk with the Catholic Daughters, who were all very suprised by some things as well.

The document you want instead of a Living Will is called a PROTECTIVE MEDICAL DECISIONS DOCUMENT (PMDD) and you can read about it at the link I gave in this message.
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I went to the website that you mentioned in your earlier post. It has nothing on PMDD on it. Can you perhaps give me a direct link??
I have a living will that is very detailed…I know people that have very vague living wills made out. But in general when you are unable to communicate or do not have the facilites to make choices I would rather rely on what I want not what my family or Doctor thinks I want.
 
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jess7396:
Here is another link for you, please read these links for your own information, a lot of people do not fully understand the Church’s teachings on end of life care, I know I did not until I really researched it for a talk with the Catholic Daughters, who were all very suprised by some things as well.

The document you want instead of a Living Will is called a PROTECTIVE MEDICAL DECISIONS DOCUMENT (PMDD) and you can read about it at the link I gave in this message.
Click to expand...
Do you mean I can not have a living will which says that my life is sacred and any medical treatment to protect my life should be taken? I think you are wrong on this. You can have anything you desire written into a living will, it does not need to be anti-Catholic or go against Catholic teaching. Is there anything requiring a living will go against Catholic teaching?
 
jess7396 thanks for the link…I have to agree with Tom though **(he made the point in his post that I was not able to do:o ).

In a Living Will you can state exactly what you would state in a PMDD…there is NO difference! Like Tom sayed a Living Will does not have to be “Non-Catholic” or go against Catholic teaching!!!

**
 
Tom and everyone else reading- I am not trying to be argumentative here, I provided links which give very clear simple information on the dangers of most “Living Wills” there are alternatives that are better choices IMO. If you have a “Living Will” that states the sanctity of your life, and accounts for every single possiblity of “choices” that an unknown Dr. could end up making for you, that is your choice. I am just trying to caution folks that the vast majority of the time, a Living Will is not the way to go. Appointing a good faithful Catholic person whom you trust to make your decisions should you be unable to, is much better than a piece of paper to be interpreted by the ER Dr. on that day.

Surely a Catholic could have a legal document that they call a “Living Will” which is in accordance with Church teachings, but the vast majority of printed “Living Wills” being handed out by Dr.s and hospitals, are not the best choice of what to use.

If anyone thinks the info. contained in the links I provided is not good, I’d be open to hearing about that.
 
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jess7396:
Tom and everyone else reading- I am not trying to be argumentative here, I provided links which give very clear simple information on the dangers of most “Living Wills” there are alternatives that are better choices IMO. If you have a “Living Will” that states the sanctity of your life, and accounts for every single possiblity of “choices” that an unknown Dr. could end up making for you, that is your choice. I am just trying to caution folks that the vast majority of the time, a Living Will is not the way to go. Appointing a good faithful Catholic person whom you trust to make your decisions should you be unable to, is much better than a piece of paper to be interpreted by the ER Dr. on that day.

Surely a Catholic could have a legal document that they call a “Living Will” which is in accordance with Church teachings, but the vast majority of printed “Living Wills” being handed out by Dr.s and hospitals, are not the best choice of what to use.

If anyone thinks the info. contained in the links I provided is not good, I’d be open to hearing about that.
Click to expand...
I did not mean to get your feathers ruffled…yes your points are valid and the links I found to be good…I guess I just had a good attorney who did not use the "typical"living will that everyone else uses…he actually spoke and talked with me about what I did and did not want. You are right in saying that the “typical” living will
is far to vague …but I am not sure I would want someone to make choices for me with out me having them written down…I guess that is what I have a problem with. :o
 
I did not mean to get your feathers ruffled…yes your points are valid and the links I found to be good…I guess I just had a good attorney who did not use the "typical"living will that everyone else uses…he actually spoke and talked with me about what I did and did not want. You are right in saying that the “typical” living will
is far to vague …but I am not sure I would want someone to make choices for me with out me having them written down…I guess that is what I have a problem with. :o
 
Oh no, you didn’t ruffle my feathers, I felt like I was getting others upset- LOL. I just posted the links I did, so that people would not fall into the typical trap where Dr.s give the “Living Will” pamphlet to fill out and scare folks with talk of broken ribs during CPR, and blah, blah, even Catholic Dr.s sometimes do not know the Church’s teachings on end of life care, and I learned so much when reseraching for that talk, so I hoped what I learned from- might help others. No offense taken or intended 😉
 
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