X-Message-Number: 2474
From: whscad1!kqb (Kevin Q Brown +1 201 386 7344)
Subject: CRYONICS Living Wills

The Nov./Dec. 1993 issue of The Immortalist has the following
tip concerning Living Wills:

    Free official living-will forms of *your* state available
    from Choice in Dying, a nonprofit group based in New York.
    Other assistance also available.  Call 1-800-989-WILL.
    [ Sent by H.J. Zinn. ]

Completing a Living Will that is recognized by your state of
residence may help ensure that when you are unable to care for
yourself you still receive the kind of medical treatment that
you want, and do not receive the kind that you do not want.
For example, if you are terminally ill you want to ensure that
stabilization for a cryonic suspension gets done immediately after
declaration of clinical death.  You do *not* want to be put on
extended life support as a "brain dead" vegetable.

The New Jersey form, called "Advance Directives for Health Care,"
has two main parts.  The first is the "Durable Power of Attorney
for Health Care," which your suspension forms may already include.
This specifies a person, whom you trust, to make your medical
decisions for you if/when you are unable to make them yourself.
The second part is the "Instruction Directive," in which you
designate what kinds of medical treatment you want and what kinds
you do not want.  This concerns use of advanced life support medicine,
criteria for declaring death (clinical death vs. brain death), and
anatomical donations.  Forms for other states may be different.

I expect that care must be taken when completing these forms to
ensure that doing so does not contradict or invalidate instructions
already given in one's other cryonic suspension paperwork, or one's
will.  Perhaps someone on CryoNet can provide more information on
what potential legal side-effects one should watch out for.

				     Kevin Q. Brown
				     
				     

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