The pro-choice Living Will has been put together by top lawyers, doctors and nurses and is in line with best practice. The pro-choice Living Will is a legally binding document and is based on the principle that all of us can refuse medical treatment if we do not want it.
If you lose the ability to communicate, for example if you develop severe dementia or suffer a serious stoke, your doctors will decide what treatment they think is in your best interests.
However the pro-choice Living Will lets you be the person in control. With the pro-choice Living Will you inform your medical care team how you wish to be treated should you lose the ability to communicate. The pro-choice Living Will gives you peace of mind by knowing it is you and not your doctor who decides what happens to you if you are seriously ill with little chance of recovery.
"Living Wills are really helpful to nurses because they help us understand what our patients want. When patients don't have a Living Will it is really hard both on the family and on health care professionals, because they worry, understandably, about whether they are acting in the patient's best interests."
- Karen Sanders, Chair of the Royal College of Nursing's Ethics Forum
"Living Wills are really helpful to nurses because they help us understand what our patients want. When patients don't have a Living Will it is really hard both on the family and on health care professionals, because they worry, understandably, about whether they are acting in the patient's best interests."