Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:49:04.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why I Don’t Have a Living Will

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Joanne Lynn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For a dozen years, my clinical practice has been largely with dying patients, my academic pursuits have focused on medical ethics, and my public service has been mostly at the interface of medicine and law. One would think that I would have “done the right thing” long ago and signed a living will. I have not. This essay is meant to illuminate my reasons. Some of my reasons may apply to others, and I will also mention some concerns that affect others but not me. However, I do not oppose the growth and development of advance directives. Rather, I hope to open the public and professional discussion of how to make decisions for incompetent adults in order to include more varieties of formal and informal advance directives and to force policy-makers to consider how to make decisions for incompetent adults who have no advance directives.

As a physician, I do use advance directives, both formal and informal, with many patients in all of my clinical settings.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 19 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Summer 1991 , pp. 101 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

The Patient Self-Determination Act, Sections 4206, 4751, of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, P.L. 101–508 (Nov. 5, 1990).Google Scholar
President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Deciding to Forego Life-sustaining Treatment, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1983; The Hastings Center, Guidelines for the Termination of Treatment and the Care of the Dying, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1987; Emanuel, L.L. Emanuel, E.J., “The Medical Directive. A new comprehensive advance care document.” J.Am.Med.Asso. 2989; 261:3288-93; Schneiderman, L.J. Arras, J.D., “Counseling Patients to Counsel Physicians on Future Care in the Event of Patient Incompetence.” Ann Intern. Med. 1985; 102:693-8.; Gibson, J.M., National Values History Project. Generations 1990; XIV: 51-64; Your Health Care Choices: A Guide to Preparing Advance Directives for Health Care Decisions in Arizona, The Dorothy Garske Center and Arizona Health Decisions, 4250 East Camelback Road, Suite 185K, Phoenix, AZ 85018, October 1990.Google Scholar
In re O’Connor, 72, N.Y.2d 517, 531 N.E.2d 607, 534 N.Y.S.2d 886 (1988); Cruzan v Harmon, 58 L.W. 4916, June 26, 1990; In re Christine Busalacchi, Missouri Court of Appeals No. 59582, March 5, 1991.Google Scholar
High, D.M., “All in the Family: Extended Autonomy and Expectations in Surrogate Health Care Decision-Making.” Gerontologist 1988; 28 (Supplement):46–52.Google Scholar
Cruzan v Harmon, 58 L.W. 4916, at 4924, 6-26-90 (Scalia, J, concurring).Google Scholar
Health Care Decisions Act of 1988,The District of Columbia, 35 DCR 8653, D.C.Code Ann. Chap. 21–2210; VA Code Sections 54.1–2981 to -2992 (1988 and Supp. 1990).Google Scholar