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The Best Reasons to Have A Living Will

Posted by admin on Dec 30, 2007

You may not want to confront the issues of having your life prolonged though medical means – being hooked up to all sorts of machines and the like. What if you were in an accident of some kind that left you unable to state your own wishes as to the maintenance of your life from that point onward? It is possible and it happens all the time.

The creation of a living will can be even very difficult to think about. Like most people, the last thing anyone wants to think about is creating a will – living will, etc. No one really wants to think of themselves as lying in a vegetative state. How about being so ill that there’s nothing medically left to be done for us and that dying is the only thing left? That is no fun thought either.

Remember the Terri Schiavo case? All the doctors had to go on in this case was what her husband and parents had to say — and they obviously had very different views on the subject of Terri’s upkeeping and future life or death.

If Terri had had a living will, more than likely a great deal of anger and pain could have been prevented in this case. This is why having a living will is absolutely crucial to everybody.

In essence, a living will gives you the ability to speak for yourself when you cannot speak for yourself. It is vital to answering any questions like those that came up in the Schiavo case before they possibly happen.

You don’t have to get an attorney make your living will. You can do it yourself, however, if you choose to go this route, make sure you make it legal by getting it witnessed by a government official such as a notary public.

Finally, once you have created your living will and have made it legally binding, be sure that the person who will have your power of attorney is aware of the will and knows where to find it at if ever needed. Often times, people will make living wills but don’t let anyone know about them or where to find them when needed.

It is important to know that hospitals will need a copy of this as well, so it is essential that whomever has your power of attorney knows about your living will and your wishes as well as where the living will is should it ever be needed. The last thing you want is to go to the effort of creating a living will and not have it adhered to because the right person doesn’t know where to find it at!

Having a living will is essential – we never know what will happen to us from day to day.

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