this depends on people adapting to their condition
Also, which condition they get. I could see myself happy in this body with a wheelchair, but I can’t see myself happy as a paraplegic. I think my ideas about how happy I’d be with a disability are pretty realistic. Anything that keeps me from communicating would make me miserable. Anything that makes me dependent on others will be stressful. Not being able to walk I could get around—I could still program and make a living, still communicate, still do something of meaning, still get around. How many of the things you enjoy about life and get meaning from are dependent on your body? There are some conditions that would make pretty much everything that’s meaningful and fun about life impossible. See my R2D2 objection.
“Living is always good” / “Any body at all is good”—hasty generalizations, sorry.
From a legal point of view, a living will is not really very like a will. One’s will contains the directions for distribution of one’s property after death. In short, the key focus of a will is financial.
By contrast, a living will is one’s list of instructions regarding medical treatment when one is unavailable to consult (i.e. unconscious). Do-not-resuscitate requests, and the circumstances when one does and doesn’t want particular intense medical interventions. Also, who should make decisions when your pre-made list does not address a particular circumstance. When one is creating a living will, financial considerations might play a part, but the key focus of a living will is medical, not financial.
Then why do so many people have living wills?
Also, which condition they get. I could see myself happy in this body with a wheelchair, but I can’t see myself happy as a paraplegic. I think my ideas about how happy I’d be with a disability are pretty realistic. Anything that keeps me from communicating would make me miserable. Anything that makes me dependent on others will be stressful. Not being able to walk I could get around—I could still program and make a living, still communicate, still do something of meaning, still get around. How many of the things you enjoy about life and get meaning from are dependent on your body? There are some conditions that would make pretty much everything that’s meaningful and fun about life impossible. See my R2D2 objection.
“Living is always good” / “Any body at all is good”—hasty generalizations, sorry.
From a legal point of view, a living will is not really very like a will. One’s will contains the directions for distribution of one’s property after death. In short, the key focus of a will is financial.
By contrast, a living will is one’s list of instructions regarding medical treatment when one is unavailable to consult (i.e. unconscious). Do-not-resuscitate requests, and the circumstances when one does and doesn’t want particular intense medical interventions. Also, who should make decisions when your pre-made list does not address a particular circumstance. When one is creating a living will, financial considerations might play a part, but the key focus of a living will is medical, not financial.