If for one reason or another you ended up being in a position where a machine was keeping you alive...what are your wishes?

Does it depend on how you got there? Coma, different types of illnesses, bad accident etc etc...

I'd want them to unplug the machine, I wouldn't want to "live" like that.

eta: Actually, it would probably depend on the situation, if it was possible that I could wake up then keep me on but if I was permanently brain damaged to the point where I'm in a vegetative state then I'd want them to unplug the machine.

DH and I have already discussed this. I told him that I want he and my daughter to decide. I don't want to put in writing something that would take me away from them if they are not ready. If they just aren't ready to let me go, they can make that choice.

I would like them to do everything they can for me but if there is really nothing they can do then just pull the plug...

I have already told DH if that ever happens and they say that even if I wake up, I won't have much of a life, to unplug me. But, I do want them to try to a certain point, if that makes sense lol

I'd want to be taken off life support no longer than a week after the doctors said I wouldn't be recovering. But at the same time, I'd want my family to be able to say their goodbyes and to get things in order, and feel like there was nothing more that could be done for me. If I'm gonna die, I'd want it to be as easy on my family as possible.

death is a natural thing. if i'm meant to die, i don't want interference. sucks to be me. pull the plug...or don't plug it in in the first place.

I would only want them to leave the machine on long enough for my family and close ones to be able to say their goodbyes. As soon as everyone has came to see me and "let go", I want the machine off asap. I think I would have taken my cousin's death way harder if I didn't get the chance to see him one last time. I know it doesn't seem like much and I still deal with it everyday, but I probably wouldn't have been able to accept his death at the time that I did if I didn't get that little bit of closure.

I have a very specific living will about this very situation. I do not want to be kept alive unless there is a chance I will come out of it with a fully functioning brain. It goes into A LOT more detail than that, but that's about the gist of it.

I wouldn't want to be kept "alive" by a machine.
I also wouldn't want to do chemotherapy. If something horrible happened to me where I'd be paralyzed from the neck down, I wouldn't want to live that way, either. There are alot more ways I wouldn't like to "live", but I can't think of them at the moment.

My friends family is in this position right now. Her 20 year old nephew has lung cancer and was told recently that he only had a couple of months left but was hospitalized the other day because he now has pneumonia and they put him on life support to see if the pneumonia clears up to give him some more time. I don't know what I would do in this situation either.

Quoting iLL-Legal Alien T -7 wks:" If for one reason or another you ended up being in a position where a machine was keeping you alive...what ... [snip!] ... are your wishes? Does it depend on how you got there? Coma, different types of illnesses, bad accident etc etc..."

If it is temporary, ride it out for a bit if there is a chance for me to recover and live a normal life, but if it is going to be a permanent situation or one where they are not sure of what could happen, just unplug me and move on....have a big old party in my honor and bury me next to my Momma.

Quoting [Boats&Hoes]:" I would only want them to leave the machine on long enough for my family and close ones to be able to ... [snip!] ... but I probably wouldn't have been able to accept his death at the time that I did if I didn't get that little bit of closure. "

This is basically my only "condition" for it. I want to be on it long enough for my close family to come say good-bye, no more than that. I don't want to stay like that for a long time, be a financial burden for my family, and I don't want to come out all smurfed up if I ever wake up.

Quoting iLL-Legal Alien T -7 wks:" This is basically my only "condition" for it. I want to be on it long enough for my close family to ... [snip!] ... like that for a long time, be a financial burden for my family, and I don't want to come out all smurfed up if I ever wake up."

THat is the main reason I wouldn't want to be left on it for years. My family would barely be able to bury me, I can't imagine making them pay the bill for years and then my funeral on top of that if it doesn't work out.

If there was a good chance I'd recover and maintain a good quality of life, I'd want to be kept on it. But if recovery was possible but it was likely I'd be fully dependent on others, no I wouldn't want to live that way.