CREGIER@UPEI.CA (Sharon Cregier) (09/18/90)
Index Number: 10435 With reference to Pat Goltz's discussion on living wills (Handicap Digest #1214), I would be interested in having a copy of the Protestant oriented Living Will which was mentioned at the close of the discussion. The "Buckingham Report" in Ministries Today (Mar/Apr 1988), p. 20, had a comment on living wills. There was a suggestion that without them, some doctors will keep paitents wired and tubed for months just to draw fat fees. Buckingham is not talking suicide or euthanasia but of the right to refuse medical treatment. Only a living will can protect the patient from protracted indignity, financial devastation, and, in many instances, excruciating, unrelieved pain. Living wills are recognised in 41 staates. The others will consider it as evidence of a patient's wishes and so ease a doctor's fear of criminal liability if he abides by the dying patient's wishes. Recommended reading is the ACLU's book by John Robertson called The Rights of the Critically Ill. $4.95, includes post. ACLU, 132 West 43rd St, NY, NY 10036. Free samples of living wills as well as information on durable powers of attorney are available from The Society for the right to Die, 250 West 57th St, NY NY 10107. Encl. a SASE business-size. Concern for Dying (800) 248-2122 also has some information. From a Christian perspective, Buckingham recommends John Sherrill, Mother's Song, published by Chosen Books. It contains a sample living will. Buckingham also recommends that churches appoint someone in the congregation to compile, distribute, and discuss the information and issues, making it available for congregational use.