Last year, a couple came into my office to sign their estate planning documents. They were Catholic and when it came time to sign the Living Will, the husband refused to sign it because he was unsure of the Catholic Church’s view on Living Wills. He stated that he wanted to be kept alive by all means necessary because he believed that was what God would have wanted. I was taken aback, to say the least. I’d never had anyone question a faith’s position on Living Wills (other than a Jehovah’s Witness who had an “approved form” which she wanted to sign).
That got me to thinking – what are the positions of various faiths and how do they feel about one of their followers not wanting to be kept alive by artificial means? Below are links that I found which may be helpful to you.
Catholic view – http://www.ewtn.com/morals/end-of-life.htm
Southern Baptist Convention views on euthanasia and assisted suicide – http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/amResolution.asp?ID=493 (within the resolution it discusses their position on keeping someone alive by artificial means and making them comfortable)
Jewish position – http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/right.html
Muslim view – http://www.isna.net/Leadership/pages/Islamic-Medical-Ethics.aspx
Hindu view – http://www.eubios.info/EJ136/ej136f.htm
Buddhist view – http://www.che.org/members/ethics/docs/1275/Buddhist.pdf
Good overview of different religious views (including Jehovah’s Witness) – Click Here
For more information, please contact the Tampa & Brandon Estate Planning Offices of Law Ohall today.
Hi Laurie,
Very interesting. I always thought of living wills as a purely legal thing but you’re right. It is a subject that touches on one’s religion.
I looked through the buddhist doc since my dad is buddhist and my feeling is that–in an effort to educate one on buddhist culture, it seems to describe an ultra-stric version of buddhist interpretation on healthcare directives.
My experience with folks in the US who are buddhist is that they are pretty proactive in writing out how they’d like their end of life to be, particularly b/c they know their philosophy may be different from traditional western medicine. They’ll use legal document sites to download a basic document to customize or contact a lawyer to get something more airtight set up for themselves and their family. (In fact many find that the simple version isn’t adequate for them b/c it doesn’t have room for some more particular requests)
Thanks for taking the time to respond and give a little more feedback on that particular religion.