The Core

>blanket DNR

While I'm in the 'f### it! Pull the plug.' group, Louise is was like you and would not sign a blanket DNR 20 years ago, when our hospitals first started asking for them.  They have progressed quite a bit to the present state, which is far more detailed while also being easier to complete (a form with checkboxes).  It's really quite good at tailoring your instructions for a broad range of possibilities.  This was no small feat --I'm sure it took platoons of lawyers decades of billable hours.  At any rate, most of our states have the templates online and even Louise was comfortable with filing it. 

>> Louise

Similar here. I want to live a good life. If it's a good, long life, I'm happy about that, but "good" is more important than "long."

But I think age, marital status, kids/no kids, age of the kids and all that play in.

My sister with a life-threatening disease survived a bout with tubes and all that when her kids were 9 and 14 because she felt like she really needed to do it for the kids, especially the younger one who had been abandoned by her birth parents, abandoned by her first adoptive parents, and was facing the prospect of losing her THIRD mother by the age of 9. Now that the youngest is 33, my sister said that if faced with that situation again, she might or might not double down and go to extreme measures, but she would do it based on her needs and desires. I realize that's a different situation than a DNR. I'm just saying some of what goes into the decision is similar.