Your Health: End of Life -- Who decides when you die?

Your Health: End of Life -- Who decides when you die?

Advance directives like living wills or durable powers of attorney are often touted as the solution to difficult ethical choices at the end of life. While they offer advantages, should every adult have one? Can they sometimes have unintended consequences? Do they really eliminate the need for families and health professionals to make hard ethical decisions?

Ethical choices at the end of life will be the discussion topic at the next Your Health lecture at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 14, at Reynolds Recital Hall. Tom Tomlinson, Ph.D., professor and director of the MSU Center for Ethics and the Humanities in the Life Sciences, will explore these issues and offer guidance in constructing an advance directive that avoids the pitfalls.

The event is free and open to the public.