If constitutional protections fail, it’s on us to explicitly state that we don’t want politicians meddling with our bodies. Carl Hiaasen helps out by providing a sample model will:
I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, unequivocally declare that in the event of a catastrophic injury, I do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.
. . .
Under no circumstances — and I can’t state this too strongly — should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn’t pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.
. . .
2. Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Floridians who aren’t in a permanent coma.
3. Under no circumstances shall the governor of Florida butt into this case and order my doctors to put a feeding tube down my throat. I don’t care how many fundamentalist votes he’s trying to scrounge for his brother in 2004, it is my wish that he plays politics with someone else’s life and leaves me to die in peace.
4. I couldn’t care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don’t know these people, and I certainly haven’t authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.
Just go read it all.
Via Notes from Atlanta.