By Jennifer Popik, J.D.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a pro-life, pro-family legal organization that provides regular, extensive training to help practicing attorneys successfully defend the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, and pro-family issues, has begun a major project to promote the National Right to Life Will to Live. As part of the project, thousands of attorneys allied with ADF across the country will make themselves available to provide free legal advice to assist individuals to fill out the proper will to live documents for their state of residence.

Douglas Napier, senior legal counsel at ADF, remarked, "Choosing the right advance directive and the right wording can be a matter of life and death. The Alliance Defense Fund is pleased to support this important pro-life effort through its nationwide network of allied attorneys who can assist people in properly completing their Will to Live. These same attorneys may also be called upon to defend the clients' expressed desires with regard to medical treatment, nutrition and hydration."

In 1992, the National Right to Life Committee developed the Will to Live advance directive. The Will to Live is a legal document that you can sign that starts from the principle that the presumption should be for life. There is a growing danger that you may be denied necessary medical treatment or even starved or dehydrated should you become unable to speak for yourself. Further, if you have or have thought about filling out other living will documents, it is important to be aware of the danger that they are often insufficiently protective.

They may use vague terms or broad ethical principles when specific directions are more appropriate. Moreover, the typical "living will" document starts from a presumption for death in the case of disability, rather than for life.

Generally speaking, the Will to Live does several things. It allows you to name a health care agent whom you trust to safeguard your life when you cannot speak for yourself. It allows you to name backup agents if your first choice cannot serve. It allows you to describe the treatment you do and do not want in order to guide your health care agent and physicians. It protects your family and health care agent by allowing them to show what you really did want. It relieves the agony of decision-making for them by making your wishes clear. NRLC continually updates these documents so that you may have access to a legal and individualized Will to Live for each of the 50 states.

ADF was formed in 1994 by the leaders of 35 ministries, including the late Dr. Bill Bright, the late Larry Burkett, Dr. James Dobson, the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, and the late Marlin Maddoux. To address its areas of focus--sanctity of life, marriage and the family, and religious freedom--ADF has a full-time legal staff that handles direct litigation, but much of its effort goes into the conduct of regular academies that train attorneys in private practice in these issues who then commit to provide a significant number of hours of free legal help.

As a result of the ADF-NRLC collaboration you will now have access to everything you will need to complete a Will to Live.

You can now find an attorney in your area who can offer free advice, and will have access to the Will to Live, instructions, explanatory material, and pocket cards through both organizations' web sites at www.nrlc.org/medethics/willtoliveproject.html and www.telladf.org/willtolive. These materials are free to download and may be distributed.

Please consider taking the time to fill out this invaluable document. Your family will thank you for it, and it very well may save your life!

Jennifer Popik is legislative counsel of the National Right to Life Committee's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.

Part One