I'm pretty sure that people in the 1800's and early 1900's didn't have living wills. Why would they? Back then, dying was dying and living was living. There was no grey area. If someone survived pneumonia it was a miracle. Survival, that was the surprise, not death. Death was expected. Death was understood to be inevitable.
Now-a-days, we are surprised when someone dies, for any reason. But if you ask most people they will tell you they don't want to be kept alive artificially, they don't want to be Terri Shiavo, they don't want to be a vegetable, or a paraplegic, or on a ventilator, or... you name it. No one wants a chronic, painful, debilitating disease that makes their quality of life unbearable. My husband says "If I can't swing a golf club honey, pull the plug." Not being able to swing a club would make his quality of life unbearable. (duly noted honey)
I am there when the time has come to face these life or death decisions. No, let me change that. I am there when you should decide to stop torturing a dying person with invasive procedures and treatments that will only serve to prolong the inevitable. Time and time again I see how what we would choose for ourselves is not what we choose for our loved ones.
Where the heck did this grey area between life and death come from? Technology. Medical "advances". Changes in societal expectations. There are worse things than death. Ask any ICU nurse.
