Decisions at the End of Life - Two Examples

Recent weeks offered a study in contrast.

First, there was the legal battle over Terri Schiavo's right to die. Mrs. Schiavo was the brain-damaged Florida woman who was kept artificially alive for years until the courts reinforced hers and her husband's decision not to be kept alive in a vegetative state.

That was an example of how difficult end-of-life decisions usually are.

Pope John Paul II passed away this week, on his own terms - in his apartment overlooking St. Peter's square, consciously refusing to be admitted to a hospital, and to be on a ventilator and other life-supporting devices.

He probably had made this decision years ago and he passed away today with dignity. As Rev. Billy Graham said on CNN's "Larry King Live": "I think he touched almost everybody in the whole world ... He taught us how to suffer, and, I think, in recent days, he's taught us how to die."

How To Prepare an Advanced Directive

The U.S. Living Will Registry.com has very useful links to resources about preparing a living will, or even better, an advanced directive in different states.

Click here to download Ohio's Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney forms.

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References:

Timeline of Pope John Paul II life - NPR.
Pope John Paul II Dies, Leaving Vital Legacy - NPR.
Pope John Paul II in Wikipedia.
Pope John Paul II Obituary in NYTimes 4/05.
Illness as media spectacle. Did the display of the pope's suffering go too far? - BMJ 4/05.
Terri Schiavo in Wikipedia.
Autopsy: Schiavo's brain half the normal size. Autopsy finds no sign of trauma - CNN 6/05.
American Attitudes Toward the End of Life - NPR.
Advance Directives and DNR Orders - Family Doctor.org.
Sample Advance Directive Form - AFP 02/99.
The Guardian: A sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study, 03/2008.
"Life has a 0% survival rate" http://goo.gl/dWmq - Another post by Dr. Rob that should be required reading whether you agree with it or not.

WJM, Volume 163(3); September 1995. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/issues/124736
A Son's Photo Journal of His Aging Father's Decline - Photo Essays - TIME http://goo.gl/RVCt
The Lancet calls end-of-life care "the neglected core business of medicine" http://goo.gl/VtgeA