June 9: The Living Will

Luis Kutner, who developed the concept of the living will in 1967 and also co-founded Amnesty International in 1961 with Peter Benenson, was born in Chicago on this date in 1908. Kutner was a poet, writer and musician who clerked for Clarence Darrow while obtaining a law degree at age 21. He was a founder of World Habeas Corpus, an organization that seeks to establish the right against unwarranted imprisonment all around the world.

“I stay in Chicago because I learned the laws of the jungle here. Whenever I am before an international body of law, I think, ‘Remember who you are, Luis Kutner. Remember where you came from.’ ” —Luis Kutner