Pfft. Like you're invited.

Like I wouldn't totally crash your wake.

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Like you totally won't already be dead. You're MUCH older than I am.

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it's only Michael Schiavo's word that his wife didn't want to be kept alive

The lesson here is that every single one of us should sit down right now and write a living will, if we haven't already, detailing exactly what we do and don't want done in case of catastrophic illness. Ask your legal next of kin--all of them: spouses, parents, children--to witness it and sign it.

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Cool, necro-smack-down.

edit: in re: Sean and Aimee, of course. Smack downs with living wills is not cool.

A vague disclaimer is no one's friend.

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I like the fertilizer idea! A lot.

Me too.

Back when I had a grass front yard right outside my front door, I used to take my fingernail and tonail clippings and toss them on the grass (no one ever used that lawn) so they'd fertilize the lawn instead of staying in a nonbiodegradable garbage bag forever.

Um, is that TMI?

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My reaction is that the husband fought for his wife's recovery then, in the early 90s, admitted to himself that she was never going to recover. His parents have never made that admission.

She was injured in February of 1990. He won his malpractice settlement (there were a few, and I think his was the last) in November of '92, and started refusing her rehabilitative care as of February of '93. It may well be as you've said--that it was evident to him, but I think it is ethically objectionable to withhold food and water from someone who can't feed and hydrate himself. The reason for that objection doesn't live too far off from the reason why I believe in food stamps, WIC, support soup kitchens, and got up at 2:00am to feed newborns. Living things need to eat, and if they can't do it for themselves, other living things should do it for them. I would see this entirely differently if she were dying of anything, or if she'd left written instructions. I supported my mother ordering a DNR for my father, and nodded at her when she looked to me, before she slipped his 02 tube out from under his nose, to hasten his passing. I also understand someone has to win. I am not comfortable that the right person is winning here, even though I am nodding like mad at everyone who wouldn't want to live that way. If this were a respirator the husband wanted to remove, I would think her parents clearly in the wrong. Mostly, I just think this is a sad, sad mess, and I hope the poor woman passes quickly and easily.

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The lesson here is that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US should sit down right now and write a living will, if we haven't already, detailing exactly what we do and don't want done in case of catastrophic illness. Ask your legal next of kin--all of them: spouses, parents, children--to witness it and sign it.

True, dat.

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-t, you have me intrigued now. What culture eats ashes? And, for what purpose?

I like the idea of being turned into sparkly jewelry.

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I like the idea of being turned into sparkly jewelry.

I wonder if LifeGem offers tiaras?

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Hubby hates dealing with any of that kind of stuff. Contemplating my mortality gives him a massive panic attack. I once asked him if he thought we should get wills--meaning him, Mr. Surgical Room Punch Card Special--and he froze up.

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