[Mark in the Old South]

It just occurred to me there is a problem with your suggestion about living wills and the need to stay away from standardized forms. You do realize many people can not afford legal representation and must rely on such forms or free legal aide (leftist in orientation and rarely quality). It seems we are becoming a nation that only values the very rich and the rest are expendable. If the courts were doing their job they would presume life unless spelled out otherwise. This would protect those with prolife values, the poor, and even the young and irresponsible. But that was when we had a real country with real respect for others and real law and real judges. That country is gone and you need not expect to see them respect your wishes. In our life times we have seen this living will notion slip from its moorings. What makes you think they have stopped moving the bar?

[wagglebee]

I have a feeling that the Catholic Church, as well as other truly pro-life denominations and organizations have standardized forms available at no cost that have been reviewed on a state-by-state basis. As far as legal aid goes, there are also legal aid groups that are funded by churches and they may be a good source Keepin mind that it is unethical for an attorney to willingly mislead any client (even if they haven't paid a penny), very few will risk their law license just to follow an agenda. A lot of the work for legal aid organizations is done as pro bono work by large law firms and they are very competent lawyers. Also, I have known a number of lawyers who did legal aid and for the most part their overwhelming concern was in making sure the impoverished didn't get screwed, their agenda is usually anti-big business or anti-death penalty, rather than anything else. I would not trust any of the pre-printed forms that hospitals have, because they almost certainly are written to protect the hospital above all else.