While I was looking for something totally unrelated, I came across the following news story:
"Marjorie Nighbert, a 76-year-old Florida woman, was hospitalized in 1996 after a stroke. Before her hospital admission, she signed an advance directive that no "heroic measures" should be employed to save her life. On the basis of that directive and at the request of her family, the hospital denied her requests for food and water ... Until her death more than 10 days later, Nighbert was restrained in her bed to prevent her raiding other patients' food trays."