Advance Directive: Ensure End-of-Life Wishes Honored
As a nurse, Kim Von Asten of Dousman, Wis., knows it's important to document how you want to be cared for at the end of your life, or when you can no longer speak for yourself because of a major illness or accident. She has seen too many families agonizing at a hospital bedside, trying to decide whether a loved one would want to be taken off life support.
But a few years ago, she realized she had multiple copies of her own advance directive "just laying around the house." During routine visits, her doctor would ask if she had one. "I'd say 'Well, they're at home somewhere and I have no
