Published in Virtues and Principles in Healthcare

Keywords: History, Living Will, Patient autonomy.

This article aims to make a historic effort about the living will, analyzing the emergence and development in the United States and the reception of the institute in Europe and Latin America. It is expected, therefore, to present to the reader an overview of the subject and a critical view of the institute in order to question the implementation of living wills and other patient consent from instruments in Brazil.