A Living Will is a form of Will for a person who is still alive
but unable to speak on behalf of themselves. In this case, a proxy is
appointed for the individual to carry out said Will. But what are the
implications of this? Let us discuss.
Living Will and its implication:
Typically a Living
Will is associated with healthcare, such as a do not resuscitate clause if the
person dies on the table. As such, if a person writes a Living Will they
could in effect be signing over their right to life to someone else.
Living Wills may apply in any area where the person is alive but
incapable of thinking for themselves (let alone responding) to carry out their
own decisions. So if a person is in a vegetative state which they may or
may not come out of, if your living will decides that you request assisted
suicide while in such a condition, then they will carry it out despite you
possibly being trapped in your own body. As such, even if you may be able
to live normally again, or function in general, you are morally choosing to
die. Likewise we have the opposite. If your body is so broken, that
you will never live a normal life again, but your Living Will says save me,
then they will and thus you must now live with a destroyed body and all the
challenges that come with it. Morally speaking you are either deciding to
commit suicide or to warp the lives of your loved ones by living and making
them share in a burden they may not be prepared for.
Those who carry out the Will: Now we add in the added issues of
the people who carry out the Wills. The Proxy has to make a moral
decision to let a person they care about die. Also, this means the
doctors or other medical professionals who are trained to try and save people
must now stand by and watch the person die. In the case of an assisted
suicide, they must in effect become a murderer to kill a person. This is
made even more burdensome by the very notion that if the person is in a
vegetative State, or similar, in which the person could wake up and live
normally, then they are killing a person by their own will who may get
"better" with time. Let us also not forget that the family can
look upon the proxy as a villain at this point for letting their family member
die. All this takes a mental toll on individuals, both family and
otherwise which a person must be willing to grapple with when placing this
burden on them.
Conclusion: Living Wills have their purpose,
but they come with moral and even ethical implications attached for all
involved. This is something to remember when giving the authority of your
own life over to someone else.
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