Friends,
The pandemic of covid-19 is provoking hard conversations in our small family, perhaps in yours, too. Although we all hope to survive this malady unscathed with lots of hand-washing and sensible distancing, there is also a realistic possibility that some of us will contract the disease. Almost all of us who get sick will suffer mild symptoms and get well. (That’s the good news!) But some of us may face more dire prospects.
This is a good time to think ahead and to prepare an advance directive. If you are unable to make your own health care decisions, designate a family member or trusted friend to be your legal proxy. Have a detailed conversation about your end-of-life wishes and values. File the necessary documents with your physician. Would you want to be intubated and on a ventilator if necessary to keep you breathing?
Probably the answer is yes. But personally, I remain unsure. It depends on my chances of recovery. Model living wills contain this language: “I direct my attending physician or primary care physician to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining medical care and treatment that is serving only to prolong the process of my dying if I should be in an incurable or irreversible mental or physical condition with no reasonable medical expectation of recovery. I direct that treatment be limited to measures which are designed to keep me comfortable and to relieve pain, including any pain which might occur from the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining medical care or treatment.”
I think that almost all of us prize autonomy, our ability to make the choices that most affect our own lives and deaths. Make a living will, or better yet, a durable power-of-attorney for health care that will offer you the most control over your own goodbyes.
Talk with your doc. And whomever you designate as your medical power-of-attorney, just tell them to follow the golden rule. Do the compassionate thing.
Gary
The pandemic of covid-19 is provoking hard conversations in our small family, perhaps in yours, too. Although we all hope to survive this malady unscathed with lots of hand-washing and sensible distancing, there is also a realistic possibility that some of us will contract the disease. Almost all of us who get sick will suffer mild symptoms and get well. (That’s the good news!) But some of us may face more dire prospects.
This is a good time to think ahead and to prepare an advance directive. If you are unable to make your own health care decisions, designate a family member or trusted friend to be your legal proxy. Have a detailed conversation about your end-of-life wishes and values. File the necessary documents with your physician. Would you want to be intubated and on a ventilator if necessary to keep you breathing?
Probably the answer is yes. But personally, I remain unsure. It depends on my chances of recovery. Model living wills contain this language: “I direct my attending physician or primary care physician to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining medical care and treatment that is serving only to prolong the process of my dying if I should be in an incurable or irreversible mental or physical condition with no reasonable medical expectation of recovery. I direct that treatment be limited to measures which are designed to keep me comfortable and to relieve pain, including any pain which might occur from the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining medical care or treatment.”
I think that almost all of us prize autonomy, our ability to make the choices that most affect our own lives and deaths. Make a living will, or better yet, a durable power-of-attorney for health care that will offer you the most control over your own goodbyes.
Talk with your doc. And whomever you designate as your medical power-of-attorney, just tell them to follow the golden rule. Do the compassionate thing.
Gary
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