Living Wills, End of Life Decisions and Organ Donation

End of life, persistent vegetative state, living wills. All the controversy and conflicts that have been a part of the Terry Schiavo case has had the country and lawmakers in an uproar.

When there is no hope of recovery, or when there is no chance of survival, why can't people let go and give in to the inevitable. It is understandable that parents do not want to see their children die. They think that they will be gone first.

Decisions at a time like this are hard to make, made even harder by the hustle and bustle of hospitals, doctors and professionals that are giving their opinions in such a hurry. You may not have much time to think about your decisions and are not in a good state of mind to do this.

It is hard to trust medical experts when you are in this type of situation, your loved one is the one they are talking about.

But these things happen. Children get sick and get diseases. Accidents happen and loved ones die. But why can't people let the one closest to them make those decisions. In this case, why couldn't the parents let the husband who has been closer to her make those decisions.

They didn't want to let go. It is understandable that they wanted to have their daughter get better. I cannot begin to understand the pain and suffering her family has gone through but I know how it could have been stopped. They could have abided by her wishes and let her go.

Her husband said time and again that she had talked about this specific topic with him and what she wanted done. But the parents had wanted what they thought was best for them and her.

It has now been proven scientifically that she had the problems that the original doctors were saying. In this case, she was gone and her body just didn't know it. I'm sure that there is other cases in the past and will be more in the future like this.

There is a way that you can prevent this from happening to you and your loved ones. The indecision and second guessing about what you want done if this kind of thing happens to you can be corrected before it happens.

It's called a living will.

A Living Will is a legal document in which you state the kind of health care you want or don't want under certain circumstances.