Con

Angela Fagerlin, PhD, Core Faculty Member at the University of Michigan Medical School, and Carl Schneider, JD, Chauncey Stillman Professor for Ethics, Morality, and the Practice of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, wrote in their 2004 article, "Enough: The Failure of the Living Will," that appeared in the Hastings Center Report:

“[T]here is direct evidence that living wills regularly fail to have their intended effect…

When we reviewed the five conditions for a successful program of living wills, we encountered evidence that not one condition has been achieved or, we think, can be. First, despite the millions of dollars lavished on propaganda, most people do not have living wills… Second, people who sign living wills have generally not thought through its instructions in a way we should want for life-and-death decisions… Third, drafters of living wills have failed to offer people the means to articulate their preferences accurately… Fourth, living wills too often do not reach the people actually making decisions for incompetent patients… Fifth, living wills seem not to increase the accuracy with which surrogates identify patients’ preferences.”

2004