One of the most prominent cases of Living Wills or Advance Directives was the Terri Schaivo case in the early 2000s. It is prominent for Living Wills, in that Terri Schaivo did not have one, and her situation caused a legal battle that lasted years and costed thousands of dollars for her family.
In this case, there was a emotional and nationally-known legal battle in Florida over whether a woman, Terri Schaivo, would be kept alive through treatment of artificial food and water, or would pass away from the disuse of the treatment. If you remember, her husband, who was still legally married to her but estranged from her family, wanted her to pass away, but her family wanted her to remain alive through the artificial means. Since Terri Schaivo did not have a Living Will that told her family and husband what her wishes were, her family and spouse went through ten years of litigation, one-hundred thousand ($100,000) of dollars in legal fees, and endless pain and frustration for everyone involved. A Florida court ultimately decided Ms. Schaivo should be allowed to pass away.
Terri Schaivo and her family could have avoided the entire situation if she had a Living Will or Advance Directive in place. Our attorney highly recommends this document since it takes the heart-breaking and agonizing decision away from your family members, and allows you to get your end-of-life wishes. In Oklahoma, there are three situations that the state allows you to make your end-of-life wishes known. See our previous post about those specific situations here. This document is inexpensive, easy to execute, and could save you and your family money, emotional stress, and it grants you all peace of mind.
If you already have a Living Will in place, see if you need to update it by reading a previous post here.
Call the office of The Skillern Law Firm, PLLC today to schedule a meeting to discuss this document as well as other your other estate planning needs today!
