Dying with Dignity

I love Cynthia Tucker:

To the extent possible, I’d like to make my own choices about my final days. So I have assigned to my brother, a physician, medical power of attorney. My mother has given him her living will.

Why are we so squeamish about discussing something that will happen to each of us eventually? Would you rather your family be left with the kind of ugly controversy that engulfed the family of Terri Schivo?

Have any of you given family members such orders or documents? I haven't - it does make me squeamish, not in the abstract but in the personal.