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Many Consider a Living Will
By: KELLY GREENE
The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2002
Three out of four older Americans think that preparing a living will is a very important part of getting ready for later life -- but most people haven't gotten around to writing one yet.
In fact, "preparing a living will" tied with "build up your savings" as the most important preparation you can make, in survey results recently released by the National Council on the Aging , a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. Among people 65 to 74 years old, the importance of a living will ranked even higher than building savings, at 77% and 75%, respectively.
"It's surprising, because the data say so few people have a living will," says Nancy Whitelaw, the council's vice president in charge of research. "It shows there's a readiness to pay attention to the issue."
Between 20% and 30% of all Americans are estimated to have a living will, which is a document that spells out your wishes about future medical treatment if you're at the end of life and unable to communicate. Some states technically refer to a living will as a "directive to physicians," "health-care declaration," or "medical directive." The idea behind such documents is to help your family and doctors decide how aggressively to use medical treatment if you are unconscious or too ill to speak up.
You often can get fill-in-the-blank living-will forms from health-care providers, such as your doctor, local hospital or long-term-care facility. You also can download forms free from the Partnership for Caring site
(www.partnershipforcaring.org), another nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. Keep in mind that living wills are regulated by state governments, so make sure you get the form that specifically adheres to your state's law.
Once you fill out the form, you might want to consider registering it -- free of charge -- with the U.S. Living Will Registry's Web site (www.uslivingwillregistry.com), so that your family members can find it more easily when they need it.
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