# What preparations, if any, have you made for your own death or disability? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 5, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352 "2010-05-05T00:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/41 "2010-06-24T14:20:53Z")
[This](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html) has been a real eye-opener, it raised issues I had not yet considered. I don’t want my wife to have to make the decisions discussed in the article. I never thought of a pacemaker as a life wrecker. ---
**Author:** ![luvrbcs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@luvrbcs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luvrbcs)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/42 "2010-06-24T14:23:34Z")
We have the wills and life insurance. We also have our burial plot and most funeral expenses paid for. We got a nice corner lot with a tree, I hope the tree lasts. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/43 "2010-06-24T22:09:40Z")
73 married, 3 kids age 35-44. My wife and I have identical wills: everything goes to spouse and then a 3 way split. I have insurance (although I don’t know why, but it is old and cheap), no living will (my wife and kids know what I want) and no power of attorney. I should. One way to minimize funeral expense is to leave your body to a med school. I have toyed with that idea. I want no religious ceremony and neither does my wife. I read that article on the pacemaker in last Sunday’s Times magazine. I have a pacemaker and that article is written from a very narrow perspective. I have had a pacemaker for three years. Before it was put in they detected a 7 second period with no heartbeat. I live a rich full life (for a 73 year old, anyway) and if a pacemaker gives me an extra ten years, I’ll take it. Maybe when I am 80 and decrepit, I won’t allow them to replace it with a new one, but I have seven years to decide that. If I start to go gaga, then my wife will refuse it. But in the mean time, don’t condemn pacemakers because some have gotten useless life extensions from them. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/44 "2010-06-24T22:25:03Z")
Female, unmarried, no kids, 27ish. My lil’ bro is set up as my beneficiary for my life insurance and AD&D. They’re provided by the company I work for; someone might as well get something out of them if I die, and given that he’s a counselor (mostly for at-risk kids), kiddo could use the money more than my parents. Everything else, I pretty much assume will default to next-of-kin, and I trust them to divide it up appropriately. I keep having half-assed intentions to stick a note somewhere with login and password information for a couple of online communities/emails so that somebody could post a death notice if necessary, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Both my parents know that I want as many organs to be donated as possible, which is the other big thing I’d care about. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/45 "2010-06-25T18:49:48Z")
28, single, no kids. I’ve done nothing except fill out my organ donor card and inform my parents that if I’m not mentally aware, they can turn the machines off. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/46 "2010-06-25T19:40:43Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I read that article on the pacemaker in last Sunday’s Times magazine. I have a pacemaker and that article is written from a very narrow perspective. I have had a pacemaker for three years. Before it was put in they detected a 7 second period with no heartbeat. I live a rich full life (for a 73 year old, anyway) and if a pacemaker gives me an extra ten years, I’ll take it. Maybe when I am 80 and decrepit, I won’t allow them to replace it with a new one, but I have seven years to decide that. If I start to go gaga, then my wife will refuse it. But in the mean time, don’t condemn pacemakers because some have gotten useless life extensions from them. I read that article, too, and it was heartbreaking. But I didn’t read it so much as a blanket condemnation of pacemakers as a condemnation of a system that leads to people undergoing invasive medical procedures with far-reaching consequences for themselves and others, all because the system provides poor incentives for ensuring fully informed consent and coordination of care. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352/47 "2010-06-26T08:25:09Z")
Female Married No children 25 I have life insurance which will also pay out if I’m unable to work due to disability. But nothing else. I took out the life insurance when I bought a house, so my husband wouldn’t have to worry about paying the mortgage. I’ll probably sort out a will when I have children. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-preparations-if-any-have-you-made-for-your-own-death-or-disability/538352.md?page=2)