Death is a natural - it is part of life - Advance Health Care Directive

Death is a natural - it is part of life - from my point of view a transition to a world beyond.

Our medicine has developed very wide range of methods and options to keep people alive. But sometimes people are kept alive, where you can ask yourself, is that still a life?

Therefore, everyone should draw up or ask someone else to put this will into a legally recognized /  accepted paper -  patient's provision, personal directive or advance health care directive and ideally additional documents - at an early stage. Everyone can and should decide for themselves what a dignified life is. You can and will find a huge number of templates - but none should simply be adopted - it's your life, your dignity, your way of living and as well not living anymore.

But - without knowing every template - they will give you room for thoughts - your thoughts. So please, go through point by point. And Yes - I know it will be quite complex decisions to be made. 

• What about permanent bedridden? 
• Do I want artificial nutrition? 
• Am I in excruciating pain? 
• Or do I still like living with dementia?
• Do I loose my dignity

But start with it and then take your time to review it - by the way even better - if you review your thoughts, sign it with the latest date and or you adjust it over the years - even better. Because if it comes to the worst your partner, your family and doctors see that you made these decisions perhaps not that long ago and that it was a process - well-conceived - well-wrought.

By the way - regarding dementia - Dementia doesn't have to be bad if you can accept the fact that you don't know certain things anymore, the food still tastes good, people are nice to me, maybe the sun is still shining. Then why shouldn't you live? YES, that can make sense and be good and right for someone. But the answer could also be NO - No, I don't want that - if it gets really bad, then rather kill me?

Lots of questions that many people don't think about - but you should.

It may be because you're still young, you're pretty healthy and the end is still far away. But I could have an accident with my motorcycle, or have a stroke. And what about Dementia and Alzheimer's when you will get older? The questions are, for example... 

• Do I want everything that is possible in terms of resuscitation to be exhausted after an accident? 

Perhaps Yes -  or is an existence / a vigilant coma on perhaps an unknown level not right for you? 

• Is it worth living for you? 
• Or after one year of vegetative state what will be then? 
• Is a vegetative state with no hope of improvement still OK for you? 
• Or should they let you die?
• Should the artificial feeding then please be stopped? Do you wish for a few friends to come? 

What do you want? And only you know it - and you should decide it before you can't do it anymore.

ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE(California)