Mara Berdahl
Jaime Olson
Ashley Biermann
Commenters: Jessica J, Karin L, Irma M, Haylie N, Colleen P, Karen W, Martin B
Should the Condition of Pregnancy Override a Woman’s Explicit Instructions in a Living Will?
The purpose of a living will is to allow people to specify in advance what kinds of life-sustaining treatment they would want in the event that they are injured or develop a terminal illness and can no longer make and communicate decisions for themselves. Of the forty-eight states that have living will laws, thirty-five compromise or eliminate pregnant women’s right to die. Sixteen require that life-sustaining procedures be continued if it is either “possible” or “probable” that the fetus could develop to the point of live birth and nineteen invalidate pregnant women’s directives altogether, prohibiting them from having any force or effect “during the course of the pregnancy.”