living will news stories on Newser

Coleman Will: Don't Unplug Me!

Rob Quinn — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:40:00 CDT

Gary Coleman's ex-wife Shannon Price ignored instructions in the actor's living will when she ordered his doctor to disconnect his life support, court documents show. Coleman had asked that he not be unplugged until after he had been in an irreversible coma for at least 15 days. But Price—named...

Dying Doc: Don't Keep Me Alive

Kevin Spak — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:13:00 CDT

Martin Welsh considers himself a lucky man, with a loving family and innumerable friends. “Life has been truly wonderful,” the 55-year-old doctor writes in the Los Angeles Times . But soon, that life will end, and he doesn’t want his doctors to do anything to prolong it. Welsh has ALS, a...

It's Time for 'The Talk' About Rationing Care

Kevin Spak — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:10:01 CDT

Two weeks before she died, Barack Obama’s terminally ill grandmother had a hip replacement. Obama said he’d have paid for the operation, but questioned whether society should have to. “I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said. But maybe morality and economics actually dovetail here,...

States Rewrite Organ-Donation Laws

Colleen Barry — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:26:31 CDT

Doctors will be able to take organs from potential donors in more sticky situations, under revisions to state laws on the boards in more than 24 states. Model legislation that's already passed in four states clarifies how to handle ethically complex decisions, helping to alleviate the chronic shortage of kidneys...