Just Like Heaven

Just saw this movie on a flight from Cincinatti to Seattle. It stars Reese Witherspoon, who plays a very busy doctor who must confront death.

The movie is extremely charming and a great light romance. If you're looking for something inspirational and heartwarming, this is it for sure.

But there's a fascinating subtext for it, too. A character in the movie is on life support (extraordinary measures) but has left no clear instructions on whether life support should be ended. Since nothing has been specified, the task of deciding something as significant as this is left to a suriviving sister.In order to make the plot work right, the audience must assume that a decision to terminate this character's life support is tragically wrong. In fact, it's a fairly short step to the assertion that life support must never be terminated.

As the Karen Anne Quindlan case demonstrated, decisions like this pose horrible moral and emotional dilemmas on family members who must make them. One 'moral' of this lighthearted and wonderful movie, then, is that each of us should make a "living will" instructing our loved ones on exactly what to do if we are on life support. The law recognizes this important human right of self-determination, but it's only as good as our use of it.

Do it today for the people you love...