Posted on 04/01/2005 1:09:12 PM PST by wagglebee
Amid the national crush to fill out living wills in the wake of the Terri Schiavo saga, a California pro-life group is warning citizens against signing that state's standard living will form, claiming it could result in a painful death by starvation and dehydration.
Campaign for Children and Families, a family-values nonprofit organization, is urging people to avoid using California's Advance Health Care Directive form because it makes no distinction between food and water versus heart-and-lung machinery and other artificial life-support systems. Californians who use the state's form with its standard check-off boxes may be denied nutrition and hydration, says the CCF, and could end up dying of thirst and hunger if they fall into a coma or become otherwise incapacitated.
The state's Advance Health Care Directive is found in the California Probate Code, Section 4701.
"California's living will law assumes you want to be starved or dehydrated to death," said CCF President Randy Thomasson. "This is frightening. Most people don't know that signing the standard advance directive form could sentence you to a horrible death, by your own hand or someone else's." The California's standard form provides space for citizens to further specify their wishes, but without the extra input, the form defaults in the direction of equating nutrition and hydration with artificial life-support machinery.
The group is recommending, instead, that interested Californians use the pro-life "Will to Live" form.
In fact, the National Right to Life website provides a "Will to Live" form for every state plus Washington, D.C.
"If you sign the standard form, and then fall into a temporary coma, or become disabled in an accident, or incur brain damage that initially prevents you from talking or writing, you could literally be starved and dehydrated to death by your own signature or by the person you appoint as your health care agent," said Jan Carroll McCoy, former associate western director for the National Right to Life Committee.
The problem, say critics of California's standard "living will" form, is that by simply filling in the check-off boxes provided, the citizen gives total control over his care, including the decision to withhold and withdraw food and water, to his agent:
(1.2) AGENT'S AUTHORITY: My agent is authorized to make all health care decisions for me, including decisions to provide, withhold, or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care to keep me alive, except as I state here.
Ironically, CCF says both the check-off options of "Choice Not to Prolong Life" and "Choice to Prolong Life" are "misleading and deadly."
The choice against prolonging life artificially with machinery opens the door for death by dehydration and starvation, since California's law defines "health care" and "treatment" as including nutrition and hydration. But even checking the box to prolong life may be problematic, say critics, since that decision puts the signer within the changing limits of "generally accepted health standards," which could conceivably encompass the denial of food and water under certain circumstances.
(2.1) END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS: I direct that my health care providers and others involved in my care provide, withhold, or withdraw treatment in accordance with the choice I have marked below:
___ (a) Choice Not To Prolong Life
I do not want my life to be prolonged if (1) I have an incurable and irreversible condition that will result in my death within a relatively short time, (2) I become unconscious and, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, I will not regain consciousness, or (3) the likely risks and burdens of treatment would outweigh the expected benefits, OR
___ (b) Choice To Prolong Life
I want my life to be prolonged as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted health care standards.
"Given that you could be starved and dehydrated to death if you use the ill-defined standard living will, now is the time for responsible citizens to take advantage of the pro-life 'Will to Live,'" said Thomasson. "Unlike the inhumane advance directive form, having a 'Will to Live' guarantees that you will receive the food and water you need should you become incapacitated, while allowing you to make distinctions about what you might consider to be extraordinary care."
The "Will to Live" was developed by the National Right to Life Committee, and is based on the presumption that "food and water are not medical treatment, but basic necessities." It specifically directs health care providers to "provide with food and fluids orally, intravenously, by tube, or by other means to the full extent necessary to both preserve my life and to assure me the optimal health possible."
"Stop and think about it," concluded Thomasson. "Food and water is not 'artificial treatment.' Food and water is not a 'machine.' Food and water is basic care for babies and adults of all ages."
Well, that is obvious enough. Through all the drumbeat around living wills, it is obvious the motivation is to kill you with a minimum of legal fuss.
Instead, I have a Health Care Power of Attorney which says if I'm unable to communicate my own wishes, my wife speaks for me.
This way, neither Congress nor my parents nor any other bunch of well-meaning busybodies can stand in the way of my wife's telling the doctors when to let me depart from this mess.
I have been telling people this. When they say if you don't want them to pull the plug get a living will to which I respond they got it 180 degrees backward. You get a living will when you want them to kill you. But it is like talking to a wall, I sure hope you have better luck.
Amid the national crush to fill out living wills in the wake of the Terri Schiavo saga, a California pro-life group is warning citizens against signing that state's standard living will form, claiming it could result in a painful death by starvation and dehydration."
Amazing how the pro-death cult is able to take advantage of even pro-life setniment and use it to their advantage... now all these pro-life people are thinking "hmmm, I need a living will" and becoming big supporters of living wills, NOT UNDERSTANDING that 'living wills' was an invention of the death cultists to get people to say "Kill me when I become a 'useless eater'."
The WHOLE PROBLEM with the Schiavo case is that it has turned upside down the presumption in favor of life... So now, lack of a living will can be as dangerous as having one.
I have an advance medical directive and medical power of attorney, they are both very specific about what I want and who is allowed to speak for me. I specifically removed my wife from having any authority to make decisions because I don't want to put her in that position. My brother is an attorney who specializes in estate planning and elder law, my wife (who is also an attorney) and I both went over every conceivable scenario with him, that way there is no confusion as to our wishes. People go out and buy forms everyday for all sorts of legal matters and usually wind up in a bigger mess than if they had done nothing, medical matters are no different.
I told the wife, just don't starve me.
The thing that amazed me the most was how many hospital employees (nurses, techs) were in favor of simple DNRs. I guess it makes less work for them. If someone has a problem, just let them die, and have another cup of coffee. Unlike doctors, they don't get paid extra for taking care of extra patients.
I understand completely why certain people (generally ones who have had multiple heart attacks or strokes, and very often elderly widowers) have DNR's, and I don't fault them at all. However, the vast majority of people who need to be resuscitated make full recoveries and go on to completely normal lives, it's sickening to think of a person in average health having a DNR.
Nurses, hospital workers...I think they just want to see you die, They are pretty immune to death, and probably figure most people are just gonna kick off anyways.....
plus they do see alot of suffering.
We know we've been remiss, but this brings it all to the forefront now. Add to that that his oldest brother (who has left the U.S. and is now a Canadian citizen) is a professor of ethics who has been to the Netherlands to study euthanasia. His parents are easily influenced people who lean left, and are in awe of their "brilliant" son and his work. We both agree that we don't want anyone from his family to have ANY say in any of the affairs of our family - period.
We just received an email sent from the owner of my hubby's place of employment about the importance of living wills, and that one could be downloaded from the WI DHFS. I realize this article is about California, but I sent it along to the guys at his work as I have not yet had a chance to review what the situation is with Wisconsin law.
You collapse on them, they start CPR and call the EMS.
Course, it is a radiology lab, and they aren't expecting to keep people around once their tests are done.
Ping
Very useful information. Thanks.
Since none of us know when/if we will need a living will, remember this. Our spouses may not be in good enough emotional or physical health to make these decisions. Our children or other family may need this form. Certainly, it would strengthen the position of the family if this is filled out and available to them. If they don't need it then they don't have to use it.
Blessings.
Yes, sir-! That's what most people should get. My beloved and I each have those and we STILL made sure others knew we didn't want to be starved or dehydrated (sp?) to death.
My gosh. Such evil, nasty people are out there.
http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/index.html is the link to the National Right To Life's Will to Live page. There are links to forms for each state.
My mom and I have sent for a CA form - Advanced Medical Directive. According to the CA Medical Assn - it is better than a living will.
I went to their website and ordered the forms $5/each and they are being mailed to us - and they include instructions on how to fill it out and how copies should be distributed.
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