Five Wishes

Five Wishes is a United States advance directive created by the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity. It has been described as the "living will with a heart and soul".[1]

Cover of Five Wishes

History

Five Wishes was originally introduced in 1996 as a Florida-only document,[2] combining a living will and health care power of attorney in addition to addressing matters of comfort care and spirituality. With help from the American Bar Association's Commission on Law and Aging and leading medical experts, a national version of Five Wishes was introduced in 1998.[3] It was originally distributed with support from a grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. With assistance from the United Health Foundation, Five Wishes is now available in 28 languages and in Braille.[4] More than 35 million documents[5] have been distributed by a network of over 40,000 partner organizations worldwide.[6] An online version called Five Wishes Online was introduced in April 2011 allowing users to complete the document using an online interface or print out a blank version to complete by hand.[7]

The Five Wishes

Wishes 1 and 2 are both legal documents. Once signed, they meet the legal requirements for an advance directive in the states listed below. Wishes 3, 4, and 5 are unique to Five Wishes, in that they address matters of comfort care, spirituality, forgiveness, and final wishes.

Wish 1: The Person I Want to Make Care Decisions for Me When I Can't

This section is an assignment of a health care agent (also called proxy, surrogate, representative, or health care power of attorney). This person makes medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to speak for yourself.

Wish 2: The Kind of Medical Treatment I Want or Don't Want

This section is a living will—a definition of what life support treatment means to you, and when you would and would not want it.

Wish 3: How Comfortable I Want to Be

This section addresses matters of comfort care—what type of pain management you would like, personal grooming and bathing instructions, and whether you would like to know about options for hospice care, among others.

Wish 4: How I Want People to Treat Me

This section speaks to personal matters, such as whether you would like to be at home and whether you would like someone to pray at your bedside.

Wish 5: What I Want My Loved Ones to Know

This section deals with matters of forgiveness, how you wish to be remembered, and final wishes regarding funeral or memorial plans.

Signing and witnessing requirements

The last portion of the document contains a section for signing the document and having it witnessed. The document indicates which states require notarization.

According to analysis by the American Bar Association's Commission on Law and Aging,[8] Five Wishes currently meets the legal requirements for an advance directive in the following 44 states and the District of Columbia.[9] In the remaining 6 states, (Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Texas) a statutory form is required, and one must attach the state document if one wishes to use the Five Wishes document as a guide.

Alaska Alabama Arizona Arkansas California
Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia
Hawaii Idaho Illinois Iowa Kentucky
Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan
Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska
Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina
North Dakota Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina
South Dakota Tennessee Utah Vermont Virginia
Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Translations

Five Wishes has been translated into 29 different languages:[10] Albanian; Arabic; Armenian; Bengali; Chinese Traditional; Chinese Simplified; Croatian; Farsi; French; German; Gujarati; Haitian Creole; Hebrew; Hindi; Hmong; Ilocano; Italian; Japanese; Khmer; Korean; Polish; Portuguese; Punjabi; Russian; Somali; Spanish; Tagalog; Urdu; Vietnamese.

References
  1. Silva, Mark, "Living Will With Heart Now Available," The Miami Herald, 7/24/1997.
  2. "'Five Wishes:'" An Easy Advance Directive Promotes Dialogue on End-of-Life Care, Robert Wood Foundation.
  3. Davies, Frank, "Living Will From Florida Goes Nationwide," The Miami Herald, 10/23/1998.
  4. "Five Wishes" Languages
  5. "Five Wishes" Website.
  6. "Five Wishes" Website.
  7. "Five Wishes Online" page.
  8. Sabatino, Charles P. Esq., "National Advance Directives: One Attempt to Scale the Barriers", National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys Journal, Volume 1, 2005
  9. "Five Wishes" States.
  10. "Five Wishes".
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