Partnership for Caring
A national leader in the United States for education on the preparation and use of advance directives and living wills to create durable power of attorney for health care. Website includes background on end of life issues, legal information, state-specific forms for the United States, publications and videos to help teach decisionmaking issues, and links to related resources.

Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Advance Directives
Information on how to make health care proxies both for Massachusetts and other states in the United States. Includes a values history which can help people document views. Includes links to related resources.

Before I Die
This PBS television website explores the medical, ethical, and social issues surrounding end-of-life care in the United States. Site explains the national "Before I Die" discussion group project, which uses videos of the 1997 TV program and an associated videoconference to raise public awareness of end of life issues. Site has an excellent, well-chosen link list covering major issues in end of life care such as use of durable power of attorney.

Final Choices: Seeking The Good Death
By Michael Vitez. This book grew out of a five-part newspaper series on end of life care which won a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez. Intended for a general audience, the book helps health care consumers examine tough choices in medical care, hospice alternatives, home care, assisted suicide, durable power of attorney, and related issues. Published February, 1998.

Final Choices: Seeking The Good Death
This five-part series on end of life care won a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez. Later published in book form, the series examines tough choices in medical care, hospice alternatives, home care, assisted suicide, and related issues. The outstanding online packaging of the original series makes excellent use of the new media of the web, integrating links to key websites, video footage, and related stories from the Inquirer archives. Includes content on durable power of attorney.

Living Well At The End Of Life
A companion website for a year-long series of articles on end of life issues by the Copley Newspapers of northern Illinois. This noteworthy project includes material on use of advance directives and durable power of attorney, hospice services, health care costs, and moving personal accounts of how some people are dealing with the many choices they face at the end of their own lives. Includes links to related resources.

Family Decisions Coalition
The law of New York state does not authorize families to make critical medical decisions for loved ones who lack the capacity to decide for themselves. Tragically, this fact is often not discovered until it is too late. As a result, incapacitated patients with no Health Care Proxy are subject to medical decisions made by doctors who may not know the patient, or hospital and nursing home administrators and lawyers, who must act to minimize their own legal risk. This site gives information specific to New York and has links to resources for other states.

Scott Roberts' Living Wills and Advance Directives Page
An excellent collection of links related to advance directives, living wills, and durable power of attorney.

When Death Is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context
This report by the New York State Department of Health covers legal and ethical issues in end of life care with specific attention to policy issues in that state. The report seeks to clarify important considerations for do-not resusitate orders (DNRs), withdrawl of life-sustaining treatment, advance treatment instructions, and related matters. Content includes statistics on the epidemiology of suicide and discussion of suicide among special patient populations. The report was authored by the Task Force On Life and the Law, a state group convened by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1984.

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