The next step

<>Of late, the focus for many of us has been on saving the life of Terri Schiavo. That should continue as long as necessary. We need to start taking a peek at the next step, though. Much anger has been directed at the courts (or at Congress if you are on a certain ‘dehydration’ side of this). The courts can only get away with what the laws allow them to. Many blogs have recommended that their readers look into living wills. While I second that, I think it is just as important for everyone to start looking at their state’s end of life laws. The way to prevent this from happening to another Terri is to work to tighten your state’s end of life laws. There are a lot of ill defined terms out there-like what is life support and what is life sustaining-so talk with your state representatives about better defining them. Also talk with your state representatives about making sure that mandatory second opinions are built into prognoses of persistent vegitative states. Most importantly, make sure that law in your state requires documentation when it comes to the admissibility of an incapacitated patient’s wishes for their own care. As the Schiavo case shows, a witness to an off handed, undocumented comment is pretty thin gruel. Always make sure that your state’s laws give life the benefit of doubt.

I’m not a lawyer, so my recommendations for what to look for are somewhat vague. I welcome input from those who are better versed in law than I. We can all help make a difference for future Terri’s by taking a look at and changing (if necessary) our own state’s laws on end of life issues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much for Terri right now.