Clients are always asking about living wills. Massachusetts law does not recognize a living will, and it’s also impossible to write a thorough, well balanced statement of your end of life wishes in just a few paragraphs.
I provide clients with a solution to their goal, but in a much better form. I give my clients a workbook called Your Way. It is published by a nonprofit in California, H.E.L.P.: Helping People Meet Aging-Related Legal & Care Challenges.
This workbook is twelve pages long and very thoughtfully walks the reader through various scenarios you could confront in an end of life situation and what kind of comfort and care you would like to receive. For example, what matters to you the most – being with friends and family? Listening to music? Being able to help dress yourself? Under various scenarios, would you want curative care or to be kept comfortable? Who do you want with you as you are dying? Where would you want to be? A twelve-page work book written by heath care professionals does a much better job elucidating your wishes than an attorney can do in a one-page living will.
If you are not a client of this office, then log onto the Your Way website and order a workbook. If you are my client, then you already have a copy. Complete the exercises and give your family the gift of knowing exactly what you would want them to do in a crisis situation.