End Of Life Living Will Case

The Living Will: Who has the Power in End-of-Life Cases?
A living will is a type of advanced health care directive, which states an individual’s wishes for health care treatment when he/she is terminally ill. Living wills are often applied to end-of-life decision making when patients are no longer deemed competent to direct care for themselves. The form of living wills can vary widely. But, most address whether or not to use life-prolong medical treatment such as CPR, respirators, and artificial nutrition and hydration. These documents can also contain information about the importance of quality of life for patients and can name a healthcare proxy to make medical decisions in their place. Having a living will allows individuals to state their

The family meeting started off rocky due to the son’s initial anger towards the hospital, due to a rule for visiting hours, which were different from the previous hospital. In the meeting, the son presented his mother’s living will, which was completed seven years prior. She created the living will after her experience as a hospice volunteer where she had participated in many cases of end-of-life care. Her notarized living will was fairly detailed, with information on the treatments that she was willing to receive as well as her beliefs on what she considered a good quality of life. The living will named her son, who at the time lived in another state across the country, as the primary proxy and her daughter-in-law, who was present when the living will was created/notarized, as a secondary proxy. When the living will was discussed in the family meeting, the son who presented it had very little information initially on what it contained. When the differences between the son’s suggested care plan and the information listed in the living will was pointed out by the attending, the son justified his version by the fact that she wrote the will seven years ago, and his mother’s views have shifted since

This case comes down to: Does the written living will or the proxy named in the living will have the louder voice in end-of-life care discussions? In this case, the voice of the proxy won. In the best cases, such decisions should be made together at the time of the creation of the living will with both the patient and the proxy. If this occurred, the son would be more on the same page with the concerns for his mother’s end of life care. Another way of solving the issue of the possibility of the woman’s life changing over the past seven years, would be having a way for the woman to acknowledge that thoughts are still the same by updating/resigning the living will