You won’t live to regret it
A woman in Iowa has already decided what her dying wish is going to be- leave me alone.
She got a tattoo on her chest a few months ago that reads “DO NOT RESUSCITATE”. She’s dead serious, too (pun intended).
According to doctors and legal experts, though, this alone wouldn’t be enough to keep someone from giving her medical help, and that she’d need more than a tattoo to really do anything.
“People might think I’m crazy, but that’s OK,” she said. “Sometimes the nuttiest ideas are the most advanced.”
But Wohlford’s decision to have her final wishes imprinted on her chest have raised some legal issues.
Some medical and legal experts doubt that Wohlford’s tattoo would be binding in the emergency room or in court. But they give her credit for originality.
“I’ll be darned,” said Bob Cowie, a Decorah lawyer and chairman of the Iowa Bar Association’s probate and trust law section.
“There are easier ways to do it than that,” said Cowie, who suggested people sign a living will or authorize a medical power of attorney.
Wohlford said she knows some people might find the tattoo amusing. But she said her motive is serious.
“This is a modern day and age,” she said. “You have to advance with the times. We never even had a living will 20 years ago. Now I think we’ve got to go to the next step.”
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