A legal document that allows people to state in advance their desire to receive, or their desire to withhold, life-support and other life-sustaining procedures when they are permanently unconscious or terminally ill and unable to make informed decisions. A living will is made in anticipation of the time when they no longer have the capacity to make decisions or to communicate decisions on their own behalf. For example, through a living will you could refuse treatment that would keep you alive, if there is no chance of reasonably recovering from your condition.
A legal document that allows people to state in advance their desire to receive, or their desire to withhold, life-support and other life-sustaining procedures when they are permanently unconscious or terminally ill and unable to make informed decisions. A living will is made in anticipation of the time when they no longer have the capacity to make decisions or to communicate decisions on their own behalf. For example, through a living will you could refuse treatment that would keep you alive, if there is no chance of reasonably recovering from your condition. It usually permits the withholding or withdrawal of any treatment that might be considered life prolonging or that artificially extends the dying process. Laws governing living wills also often require that comfort measures always be provided to such patients.
See:
Are Living Wills Followed?
Advance Directive Definition