Too bad the research shows that Living Wills may not live up to the hype.  According to a recent study by two University of California Irvine researchers, Professors Peter Ditto and Elizabeth Loftus, Living Wills appear to have serious defects.  One problem is that patient preferences change over time.  For instance, one tends to be more inclined against end-of-life treatments immediately after a hospital stay, but this changes with time.  Also, positive treatment results of family members make a patient more inclined to end-of-life treatment.  Many people who make Living Wills change their preferences but forget about their Living Will, or misidentify those preferences in the Living Will. 

Perhaps the most glaring weakness is that Living Wills do not appear to provide guidance  to surrogates who have read them.  According to the study, the accuracy of a surrogate who has read a Living Will in prediciting a loved one's treatment preferences is no higher than that of a surrogate who has not read the Living Will.  So a Living Will can be totally inconsistent with the patient's most recent intentions.   

Having a Living Will apparently makes both the patients and the surrogates feel better, so it's not all bad news. 

Have a safe day,

Chris Graham