by Susan J.Marks

Make sure your living will is specific enough to reflect your wishes, values and beliefs.

Terri Schiavo's case lingered in the courts for years as the Florida woman's husband and parents argued about whether she'd want to live in a vegetative state. Congress, the president and activists worldwide weighed in before the removal of her feeding tube ended her life.

Ms. Schiavo had no living will or advance directive. Those legal documents would have let others know what she wanted when she could no longer make her own treatment decisions.

She wasn't alone in not putting her wishes on paper.More than half of us have no living will, according to a survey by the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA).

A living will tells others how you want to be treated when it comes to life-sustaining measures. Such a will doesn't always tell doctors to withhold or end those steps. In fact, it can call for treatment to go on regardless of the person's medical condition,NAELA says.

Living wills, powers of attorney and health care proxies are known as advance directives. If you don't have such documents to spell out your desires, someone else may decide how and whether you live or die.

"People tend to avoid these issues for the same reason they don't deal with having a will," says NAELA President-elect Donna Bashaw. "People tend to think it's not going to happen to them, that they're immortal."

Part of Ms. Schiavo's legacy is that more people realize they need these documents, says Ms. Bashaw. "Once you turn 18 ... you need to get into writing how you feel about life-support systems, what your desires are, who you want to make decisions for you if you can't make them for yourself."

A Florida nonprofit group, Aging With Dignity, has distributed more than 6 million copies of a low-cost "5 Wishes" living will. Paul Malley, the group's president, says you should keep three main things in mind when you draft a living will:

• Put your wishes in writing in a way that meets your state's legal requirements.
• Make your wishes known to your family and your doctor.
• Make sure those people have copies of your living will.

Make sure your living will is specific enough to reflect your wishes, values and beliefs, Mr.Malley says.Watch the definition of "life support" treatment. It can mean different things to different people.

With end-of-life directives,NAELA suggests a few issues to address.What are your wishes:

• If you can no longer eat, drink or breathe on your own?
• If you can't function without machines?
• If you are confined to bed?
• If you can't think, reason and remember?

To Learn More

• AARP: 888-687-2277, www.aarp.org
• Aging With Dignity: 888-594-7437, www.agingwithdignity.org
• National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys: 520-881-4005, www.naela.org

Important Terms
Advance directives: Legal documents that express a person's wishes about medical decisions. They're meant to provide direction to a designated "agent" to speak on behalf of a person who is unable to speak for himself.

Conservatorship: Person named by a court to handle the financial affairs of a person unable to do so for herself.

Do not resuscitate order: Also called a DNR or no-code order, this medical order spells out treatments or procedures that should not be used to revive a person if his heartbeat or breathing ceases.

Health care power of attorney: Authorizes a person to convey another person's medical instructions. It can provide a host of other powers, too.

Health care proxy: Authorizes one or more people to convey another person's wishes regarding end-of-life treatment. It's sometimes the same as a health care power of attorney.

Living will: Statement of how a person would like to be treated if she is unable to make decisions on the use of lifesustaining treatment.

Source: National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys

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