creating your living will

by Kathleen Moore, PhD

No matter how you may feel about the drama and ultimate outcome of the Terry Schiavo case, one positive result has been a more widespread recognition of the value of having advance end-of-life directives in place to make your wishes clear and to relieve your loved ones from having to guess what you might have wanted.

To help make the important but often-neglected task of creating an advance directive easier, two University of Rochester medical students have created an innovative do-it-yourself website, www.doyourproxy.org, that offers free, anonymous, step-by-step guidance to creating a living will or a healthcare proxy online in a matter of minutes. A health care proxy is a legal document that lets you name a healthcare agent – someone you trust to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make decisions for yourself in the future – and also gives you the option of listing specific health care wishes. A living will allows you to leave written instructions that explain your health care wishes, especially about end-of-life care, should you be unable to speak for yourself in the future.

On the site, you are prompted to enter personal information, designate a healthcare agent to make medical decisions for you, and specify any special instructions or limitations. You are then given instructions on how to print, save, and store the documents. The site even includes helpful advice on how to choose the individual who will act as your healthcare agent.

The information you enter on the site is completely private and is not collected or stored in any way. The forms generated by the site meet the legal requirements of 35 states.

“Thinking about end-of-life issues can be very difficult; filling out the forms should be easy,” says Anne Fugle, one of the site’s developers. “Our ultimate goal is to increase the number of people in New York State (and the rest of the country) who are thinking about end-oflife issues and to make it easier for people to legally document their wishes.”

ROCHESTER RESOURCE www.doyourproxy.org