Compliance with Advance Directives: Wrongful Living and Tort Law Incentives (SSRN)
Modern ethical and legal norms generally require that deference be accorded to patients' decisions regarding treatment, including decisions to refuse life-sustaining care, even when patients no longer have the capacity to communicate those decisions to their physicians.

Confronting Questions of Life and Death (Freep.com - 9/7/09)
Prior planning can ease tough family decisions.
Patti's Comment: Have you discussed your preferences with your loved ones?

Death in the Family (New York Times - 12/2/07)
Efforts by ex-governor Booth Gardner (now suffering from Parkinson's) to bring physician-assisted suicide to the State of Washington. Includes argument that physician-assisted suicide is a threat to women.

Dying with Dignity (Stock Market Help)
As modern, optimistic, technology-loving, forward-looking Americans, we not only hate to talk about death; we love to spend our time and money as though we will live forever. As a result, we tend to handle the end of life pretty terribly—financially as well as physically and emotionally.

End of Life Choices: A View From the Front Line (New York Times - 11/11/08)
Compassion & Choices is a non-profit organization best known for its efforts to legalize physician assistance for the dying.

How to Choose Hospice Care (Go-Go Mum - 9/09)
Determining the appropriate hospice care you or a loved one requires at the end-of-life may seem like a daunting task to take on during an already difficult time.

Making a Plan to Ease Grief
Patients who have no plans could end up with a court-appointed guardian. To get a copy of a living will from the Visiting Nurse Association of SE Michigan, see "Five Wishes."
Patti's Comment: Nice info on leaving guidelines with loved ones from the firm to which I am Of Counsel.

Medicare Hospice Benefits (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
Official government booklet for Medicare hospice benefits.

Medicare Hospice Benefits (The Federal Medicare Agency) (large print edition)
A booklet that explains the hospice program, who is eligible, how to find a hospice program and where to get more help.

Physician-Assisted Death - From Oregon to Washington State (New England Journal of Medicine - 12/11/08)
Residents of the state of Washington voted 58% to 42% to allow physician-assisted suicide.

Save Money on a Funeral (The Consumerist - 3/6/09)
Someone wrote to us this week that a person in his family is terminally ill, and that he was told "that the cost of the casket, funeral, viewing, and burial would possibly exceed 12,000 dollars." He thinks that's an "exorbitant amount of money," and so do we.

Schiavo Case Brings Light to Living Wills (Click on Detroit - 3/21/05)
Terri Schiavo didn't have a living will. But because of her, thousands of other Americans won't make that same mistake. Attorneys and organizations that promote the importance of living wills and advance directives say the bitter legal battle over the severely brain damaged woman has led many people to put their end-of-life wishes in writing.

What Do We Advise Our Clients? (Margaret Dore - King County Bar Assn.)
A client wants to know about the new Death with Dignity Act, which legalizes physician-assisted suicide in Washington. Do you take the politically correct path and agree that it’s the best thing since sliced bread? Or do you do your job as a lawyer and tell him that the Act has problems and that he may want to take steps to protect himself?

The Green Hereafter (Slate - 2/17/09)
How to leave an environmentally friendly corpse.

The New Alone (WashingtonPost.com - Jan. 27, 2008)
Because of profound changes in how Americans organize and sustain -- and often break up -- our families, our nation will soon confront a never-before-seen shift in how we die and whom we'll have around us when we do. And the likelihood is that on every level, we will be dying much more alone.

Arbor Hospice
Mission is to give comfort, assurance and care to families and patients who have life limiting illnesses, and to educate and nurture others in this care.

Compassion & Choices
The oldest, largest and most comprehensive choice-in-dying organization in the United States formed by the unification of Compassion in Dying and End-of-Life Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society).

End of Life Care - Questions and Answers (National Cancer Institute)

End of Life Info (Hospice Foundation of America)

End of Life Issues and Care (American Psychological Association)

End of Life Issues (Medline Plus)

Funeral Consumers Alliance
A Federation of Nonprofit Consumer Information Societies protecting a consumer's right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral.

The Checkout Line
When Dear Abby isn't enough... An advice column for both the terminally ill, and their friends and relatives. Every weekday your questions about dying — how it affects you, how to deal with it — will be answered.

Not Dead Yet (blog)
Though often described as compassionate, legalized medical killing is really about a deadly double standard for people with severe disabilities.

Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Articles Available (Jeanne M. Hannah - Blog)
Links to articles in the Annals of Internal Medicine provide useful information about palliative and end-of-life care. A helpful table is included with each article to help caregivers manage decision-making. Although written for doctors, many family caregivers will find this information useful.

Hard Choices for Loving People - Hank Dunn, Chaplain
CPR, artificial feeding, comfort care, and the patient with a life-threatening illness.