What is a living will?
A living will is a very specific document that you can create which defines your desires at the very end of life. If you're so sick that it is not within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that you will be able to recover, then this document is spelling out what you would like to have done, or not done. In other words, if you want life prolonging procedures withdrawn, you would put that within a living will document. A number of individuals are very afraid of these documents, because they confuse it with a Do Not Resuscitate order. However, very strict threshold requirements must be followed and you have to have those circumstances actually occur to you before your document will be put into place and into play by the person that you have selected to make those decisions for you when you no longer can make those decisions.