A Living Will

A document that declares your intention as to what should take place when you die is called a living  will.  This document deals with your property and what will happen to it when you are gone. But a living will is not truly a will in the legal sense of the word.  Lawyers will call this type of will an advance directive and usually covers a type of medical treatment that you wish to have done, not done or to undergo under certain circumstance before you die. 

This living will actually gives the mentally competent patient the choice to say what medical treatment, whether it is rational or irrational, will be performed even if that decision leads to his own death.  Making a will like this will stop doctors or others from overriding your wished as that would be a civil and criminal assault. 

This medical treatment that is talked about here is not the same as basic nursing care as this cannot be refused. Nursing care that will keep you comfortable like feeding with a spoon and bathing are not the same as artificial feedings. These advanced directives can be useful on a future date if you loose the power of making your own decisions or you can no longer communicate. A stroke or coma would be two examples of this.