It is so easy for all of us to decide how everyone else should conduct their own lives. With total sincerity I hope that none of us is ever confronted with the problems forced upon the Munoz family. They were only trying to comply with Marlise's wishes & JMO, she had been extremely explicit & they felt an obligation to do as she had requested. How would any of us feel if one of our spouse's or relative's wishes were totally ignored. I think most of us would suffer terrible pain, I know I would. This whole thing does not even have to be about a pregnant woman. What if you had a male relative who expressed that he wanted no medical experiments performed on his body? Then some doctor or attorney pops up & says, "Oh, but this is such an unusual case, we must conduct experiments". My mother suffered from dementia for years, but in one of her lucid moments she asked me to not have an autopsy performed unless one was absolutely required. If it had been my decision alone, I would probably have had an autopsy performed in order for the doctors learn more about a brain with dementia. As it turned out, no autopsy was required because she had an attended death. And because I loved her deeply, I honored her request.
Personally, I would like to donate my body to medical science. However, I have some relatives who are violently opposed. I keep trying to convince them & I'm not sure whether or not I'm making any progress. At this point, I'm not sure what will happen.
I just hope that no one here has their end of life requests ignored whatever their wishes might be.
