It's something most of us don't want to think about.

Like visiting the local mortician to preplan our funerals, looking up an attorney to help put together a living will is not high on our priority list.

	Budinger

The Terri Schiavo case has focused huge attention on living wills, also called "advanced healthcare directives," that tell doctors, your children, your relatives and yes, even your spouse, when it's time to back off and let nature do what it has to do.

The medical community says only 20 percent to 30 percent of patients checking into hospitals have a living will. Unlike the certainty of that preplanned funeral, a living will may never come into play. But in this age of burgeoning medical technology, life-support procedures and machines, it's become vitally important.

In fact, Michael Angelo Mccagnan, a Hampton attorney, believes it's so important that he's offering to help people prepare living wills for free.

"All that legal wrangling in the Schiavo case is not really related to the issue at hand," he said. "Anyone can bypass this ... by simply filling out a three-page document."

Mccagnan, 30, said he is offering free living wills with "no strings attached" and that visitors to his office "need not retain me for any other legal counsel or purchase any other documents from me," according to an e-mail distribution he sent out last week.

He pooh-poohed the suggestion that this might be a maneuver to lure potential clients into his one-man law office. "It's just something I want to contribute to the public. I know it's out there and available.

"Actually, you don't even have to go to an attorney to do this."

He's right. Under Pennsylvania's Advanced Directive for Healthcare Act, simply writing your wishes on the back of napkin and making sure enough people know about them may be all that's needed when it's time to make end-of-life decisions. There are no requirements to file the living will anywhere and no requirements to even notarize or witness the document, although it certainly helps.

There are various prepared forms for living wills. They are all designed to convey the wishes of the person regarding medical care if he or she falls into a permanent vegetative state or terminal condition, verified by two physicians. The most common form in this area is one endorsed by the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Allegheny County Medical Society.

It's simple but it's sobering. By checking boxes, it forces you to make yes-or-no decisions on a laundry list of life-maintaining medical procedures -- cardiac resuscitation, mechanical respiration, blood transfusion, dialysis, feeding tubes and many others.

Ken Baker, an attorney with Peacock Keller & Ecker in Washington, Pa., who specializes in estates and wills, agreed that a lawyer is not needed to prepare an effective living will. But it's not a bad idea.

"For instance, the law doesn't cover [the powers] of the surrogate who speaks for you. Can they deviate from the form you filled out? Can they override your decisions at any point?"

His firm uses a modified version of the Allegheny County form that includes directives on this and other contingencies that could crop up. Also, there are questions involving durable power of attorney and durable health care power of attorney, who may not be the same person and whose duties could conflict.

Baker said he usually presents the forms and a packet of information to clients on their first visit and allows them time to digest the information and reflect on their wishes. It's not a thing you want to rush them through, he said.

It's a good idea to have witnesses sign the document, have it notarized to give it some credence in states other than Pennsylvania, and make sure your personal physician, key relatives and friends, and, perhaps, your pastor has a copy.

It should be presented whenever you are checked into a hospital to become part of your medical record.

Like any legal or pseudo-legal document, given enough thought, it can get complicated with a lot of what ifs as every possible scenario and contingency is thrashed out. Still, as legal processes go, this one is fairly straightforward.

Now is the time to do it. As Maccagnan said, "By the time you need it, it's too late."