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End-of-life resources |
| Helpful resources for making
decisions about the end of life [3-25-05]
Bruce Gillette has listed these resources for people who are now thinking
seriously about end-of-life decisions.
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Mayo Clinic has a good online article titled
Advance directives: Make
your medical care wishes known
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"Are
Your Affairs in Order? A Planning and Resource Book" is an
excellent resource from Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. From its
introduction: "We want you to plan ahead! To do so is to be absolutely
consistent with our Christian heritage. Because we believe that death is
not the end, we are able to face it with courage - with a sense of
responsibility to those loved ones who carry on after our own death.
Because we love them, we want to have our 'affairs in order'"
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| Another excellent resource is Five Wishes: The
Five Wishes document helps you express how you want
to be treated if you are seriously ill and unable to speak for yourself.
It is unique among all other living will and health agent forms because it
looks to all of a person's needs: medical, personal, emotional and
spiritual. Five Wishes also encourages discussing your wishes with
your family and physician.
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In life and death we belong
to God – A Study Guide (89-page
pdf file) from the PCUSA's Theology and Worship looks at Euthanasia,
assisted suicide, and end-of-life issues "...While the study suggests
no neat resolution of the issues, it will encourage participants to
wrestle with ambiguities, to respect one another's perspectives, and to
model ways of effectively considering controversial topics. The authors
hope that, when the study concludes, participants not only will have
learned new information but will have also grown in faith..." Also on this
site:
End of Life Issues
– General Assembly action, and
a Presbyterian Panel study on end-of-life issues.
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Living Will Resources
A guide to religious and secular living will forms, laws, and other
spiritual resources for thinking about end-of-life issues is provided by
BeliefNet. Their guide includes appropriate forms for various states,
thoughts about the spiritual issues involved in creating a living will, and
information on what various faith traditions says about end-of-life issues.
ActForChange has sent this note,
including both political statements and some helpful resources:
There are many lessons to learn from the unprecedented intervention by
Congress (as led by Rep. Tom DeLay) into the tragic situation of Terri
Schiavo.
The first is that the current Congress will intervene in the most private
of family matters if it sees political advantage in doing so.
As a result, the only way to ensure that your own views are respected in
similar settings is to have an advanced healthcare directive or living will.
Working Assets does not provide legal advice. However, many have found
helpful the information on these subjects provided by
The American Bar Association
and the
Living Will Registry.
The second lesson is that there is no limit to the sheer audacity and
hypocrisy of Rep. DeLay and his followers in this unprecedented
intervention, only days after voting to slash billions of dollars from the
health program which provides for millions of Americans and which itself
saves thousands of lives.
ActForChange urges that people demand that their representatives save
lives by restoring cuts to the critical Medicaid program.
Click here to take action!
Do you have other suggestions of helpful
material as people think seriously about living wills, end-of-life planning,
and related matters?
Please send a note
and we'll share them here!
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An index of
our reports
from
BECOMING NEIGHBORS:
An Invitation
to Global Discipleship
A Witherspoon conference
on global mission and justice
September 16 - 19, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky |
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Check out our report from the
Conference
on
Terror, Torture,
and Security |
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