Living Will
Living Will, a document indicating whether an individual wants to receive life-prolonging treatments if he or she were to become terminally ill and unable to make his or her wishes known. Most living wills are intended to authorize the cessation of life-prolonging treatments; some, however, are made to ensure that such treatments be continued. A somewhat similar legal instrument is the durable power of attorney for health care decisions, or advance medical directive. Prior to incapacity, an individual (the grantor) authorizes in writing a second party (the agent, usually a close family member) to make decisions concerning the grantor's medical treatment should the grantor become unable to do so.
The importance of having a living will or durable power of attorney was made clear in 1990 with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Cruzan v. Director of Missouri Department of Health. The court ruled that in order to discontinue life-prolonging medical treatment “clear and convincing evidence” had to exist that the patient did not want such treatment to be used.