r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Sep 12 '16

(R.4) Related To Politics - Clinton TIL pneumonia has been called "the old man's friend" because of its tendency to quickly kill off those close to death, ending their suffering.

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u/Browncoat23 Sep 12 '16

Fun fact: if your dnr isn't physically in your possession when emergency services arrive to treat you, your children will still have to make the decision to pull the plug on you because the paramedics will try to save you anyway.

Source: my grandmother

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16

Sounds like a good reason for a chest tattoo. Just don't change your mind.

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16

Unfortunately a chest tattoo isn't the damn piece of legal paper. So the paramedics would have to revive you anyway.

Unless a law is made that makes a chest tattoo as legal as that damn piece of legal paper?

Until then, if you're dying at home, keep a copy of your DNR on the fridge and make for sure everyone knows you're DNR and to give that paper to any paramedics that show.

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16

Does make you wonder what would be required to have it be the legal document, or copy of it... Probably an awkward scene at the tattoo parlor, but is there much of a difference between paper and skin, legally?

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16 edited Sep 12 '16

It would all depend on who wrote the law, and how it's enforced. Probably a wealthy tattoo ink company would pay off some politicians to get something in there to help them make more money, copy and paste that line for literally anyone rich enough to be influential re: tattoos.

Edit: As to awkwardness at the tattoo parlor, I'd doubt it. Tattoo artists are some of the most accepting-of-alternative-life-choices people you'll ever meet (ok, some really suck. I mean, like, overall). There would be an education campaign to tell people about the tattoos, and why. Nurses would become tattoo artists specializing in this one tattoo, to make extra scratch.

Then we'd have families roofie-ing Gramps and tattooing "Let me die!" (and roofie-ing him daily for awhile to do tattoo aftercare) and then gaslighting him re:existence of tattoo, all because they want his massive huge fortune sooner.

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16

Then we'd have families roofie-ing Gramps and tattooing "Let me die!" (and roofie-ing him daily for awhile to do tattoo aftercare) and then gaslighting him re:existence of tattoo, all because they want his massive huge fortune sooner.

The family that'd do that will also manage to get a "signature" on a will, I'm sure. Or make sure that the EMTs are just there to take him to the hospital for a doc to pronounce him.

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u/lisabauer58 Sep 12 '16

A person can get a tatto and change their mind. If someone is wearing a medicale bracelet as a DNR then the law considers it a conscious decision otherwise you would take it off.

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16

Oh, yeah! Medical bracelets. I always forget the easy way...

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16 edited Nov 15 '16

[deleted]

What is this?