You're on your death bed on dialysis and hooked up to the machine that goes beep. No longer blessed with the power of thought, let alone speech. You've made it clear to your family in more lucid times that you dont want your life prolonged in such circumstances, and they gather around to say their teary eyed farewells before the switch is flicked.
But wait, here comes your business partner at the eleventh hour. Seems like you're worth more to him alive than dead, so he calls a halt to the proceedings. The matter goes to the state guardianship board, which rules the machine stays on. Other parties only have the right to approve initiating a life-extending intervention, such as dialysis, they cant authorise its turning off.
Hard to believe, but something very like this just happened in NSW.
Unfortunately, living wills wont necessarily fix the problem either.
Read the judgement at ......