Tuesday, March 29, 2005

One Bright Spot

If there is one bright spot in the whole Terri Shiavo storm cloud that is blanketing our nation, it is this: folks are seriously considering their own living wills. Now, whatever you may think of Michael Smerconish's politics -- and he is admittedly biased toward the conservative side of things -- he does try to be fair. And this time around, he has been more than fair regarding this issue:
He is actually doing something positive.
Rather than pull a Rush Limbaugh and simply froth at the mouth all day long (no, I am not providing any links to Limbaugh, it's bad enough I mentioned him by name here), Michael has teamed with a local lawyer (David Glyn, Esquire) to provide PA residents with a sample Living Will. He spent most of his program today going over the details of this will. It's only three pages long, but when you reflect on the Terri Shiavo situation, I think you will see how important it is to complete these pages and get them notarized. I'm working on them this week and will encourage my wife to do the same. You can find links to download the Living Will with HIPPA language at Michael's Must Read of the Day for March 29, 2005. The Must Read portion of his website is new, so it only has links for the Living Will. But you never know when someone else might stop by later this week, so I gave the date as well. I hope the documents remain archived on his website. I'll keep checking and inform you later. UPDATE: Michael's 'Must Read' links change on a daily basis. So I have archived the documents on my own site: Living Will with HIPPA Language [Word] [PDF]. More Resources: If you know of one or more great resources that I missed, please feel free to post the URL or book title via a comment. Updates:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Consider adding the following:
http://www.deathwithdignity.org/law

http://www.endoflifechoices.org/index.jsp

http://www.compassionindying.org/index1.php

Beware of anti-choice, right-wing theocratic organizations who have websites utilizing the name "The REAL Hemlock Society". Their sole purpose is to push an anti-choice, anti-individual agenda and to rail against the End of Life Choices organization (formerly known as Hemlock Society). There is no greater evil than taking away a human being's right to their own body, whether it be the right to abortion, the right to birth control, the right to vasectomy OR the right to die with dignity. And while I'm ranting, Jesse Jackson should be ashamed of himself and his decision to align his career with the anti-choice religious zealots. This entire matter has spiraled out of control - what should have been a simple matter of privacy and the husband's right to make the decision for his spouse became an emotional debate about religion, death and family ties.