quoting columnist Ann Woolner

Dear Loved Ones (and your lawyers):

If I should wind up in a persistent vegetative state with no reasonable chance of recovery, please let me die in peace.

Specifically:

1. Do not involve Congress in my condition.  To resolve any disagreement among you, litigate if you must, but keep Congress out of it.  Congress' job is to enact laws of general interest, not to settle family disputes or to give the losing side in a lawsuit more chances than anyone else gets.

2. Tell the president and the governor to stay out of it, too.  Like members of Congress, they are more focused on their interests than mine.  My condition and my wishes are best determined at trial, where evidence is weighed, not by politicians giving vent to public emotion.

3. Do not involve the state legislature in my condition, either.  See numbers 1 and 2.

4. If so-called advocacy groups claim to speak for me, please make it clear that they do not.  I abhor the idea that people might use my diminished state as fodder for their cause.

5. Do not allow cameras to capture my likeness after my brain has essentially stopped working, not even for litigation purposes.  Compared to brain scans, video of what's left of me is all but useless in deciding what my brain is doing, and selective airing of excerpts would distort the truth.  Besides, I don't want millions of strangers watching me in such a condition.

Thank you.
madbaker