Reply #14: thanks for all

[birdydem]

the nice welcomes.

And KharmaTrain, well said post. I, too, had to deal with the life support issue when my mother was dying. She did not want life support and did not receive life support. That was 21 years ago and I don't believe she had anything in writing as a directive. But, she could verbally tell her doctors and her family. But, still, the word of us, as her family, was good enough for the doctors, when my mother fell into unconciousness and could no longer speak for herself. The hospital did not try to impose life support on my mother after that. I can't help but wonder, if there is no advance directives, if a family's knowledge on how the patient would of wanted it for themselves, will be taken into account anymore or if it will become policy, that without an advance directive, medical life support will be mandatory.