如果有一天患上不治之癥，身心飽受病魔摧殘，毫無生活質量可言。你會選擇采用各種方式維持生命還是放棄一切生命維持措施，有尊嚴、無痛苦地死亡？現在，你可以把這個決定寫進你的“生前預囑”里。

The living will is the oldest form of advance directive. It was first proposed by an Illinois attorney, Luis Kutner, in a law journal in 1969. Kutner drew from existing estate law, by which an individual can control property affairs after death and devised a way for an individual to express his or her health care desires when no longer able to express current health care wishes. Because this form of “will” was to be used while an individual was still alive (but no longer able to make decisions) it was dubbed the “living will.”

Living will（生前預囑）是預立醫療指示（advance directive）最早的形式，最初由伊利諾伊州一位名叫路易斯?庫特納的律師在1969年的一份法律期刊上提出。現行的財產法允許個人對身故后的財產事務提前做好安排，庫特納從中獲得靈感提出了讓個人提前表明在身體無法自主時想要得到的醫療護理要求。因為這種“囑愿”要在個人活著（但無法做決定）的時候使用，所以被稱為“生前預囑”。

The living will is used only if the individual has become unable to give informed consent or refusal due to incapacity. A living will can be very specific or very general. An example of a statement sometimes found in a living will is: “If I suffer an incurable, irreversible illness, disease, or condition and my attending physician determines that my condition is terminal, I direct that life-sustaining measures that would serve only to prolong my dying be withheld or discontinued.”

生前預囑只能在個人無法做出知情同意或否決的決定時使用。預囑可以很具體也可以很寬泛。會被寫入預囑的聲明可能會是這樣的：“如果我患了不治之癥或處于無力回天的境地，而我的醫生也認為我的情況無法挽回，我要求禁用或停用那些只會延長我死亡進程的生命維持手段。”

Living wills proved to be very popular, and by 2007, 41% of Americans had completed a living will. In response to public needs, state legislatures soon passed laws in support of living wills in virtually every state in the union.

生前預囑受到普遍認可，到2007年，已有41%的美國人立了生前預囑。為了回應公眾需求，美國各州的立法部門在短時間內基本都通過了支持生前預囑的法案。

Living wills reflect a moment in time, and may therefore need regular updating to ensure that the correct course of action can be chosen. (Source: Wikipedia)

生前預囑只能反應某個時間段的狀態，因此需要定期更新以確保做出正確的指令選擇。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）

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