Shows how to prepare an ethical will and provides as guides examples of ethical wills of famous and ordinary people.

Contents: Collection of wills originally written in English, German, Hebrew and Yiddish.

As evidenced in the Terri Schiavo case that made national headlines, having a living will is an essential element in ensuring that the way in which you would like to spend your last days will be respected. It informs both family and doctors of your medical treatment preferences in specific situations. An ethical will is a complementary text that communicates personal values, beliefs, blessings, and advice to relatives and to future generations. It can be more meaningful to friends and family than any material possession you could bequeath to them. Together, living and ethical wills ensure that your wishes and hopes are "on the record," not to be lost, ignored, or forgotten. Offering practical and inspirational advice for people at any stage of life, Ethical and Living Wills includes: --Three recommended writing approaches to capturing our feelings for posterity --Expert information for understanding the legal and practical issues involved in documenting your medical care and treatment preferences in commonly occurring situations --Advice on when to distribute both ethical and living wills -- Tips to protect the legacy you leave in an ethical will-preparing and caring for the document you create

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Ethical wills try to sum up what people have learned in life, and what they want most for, and from, their loved ones. This unique combination of "What Is" and "How To" shows how to prepare an ethical will and provides as guides examples of ethical wills written by nearly 100 famous and ordinary people. Includes a topical index to help you write your own ethical will.

We are all going to die, but some of us will die better. As a spiritual teacher based in the Washington, D.C., area, Erica Brown has attracted a strong following among those looking for practical wisdom based on the world’s most revered and treasured religious texts. Here she shares stories and ref lections on one of life’s most essential topics: how we pack each day with love and meaning precisely because we will not live forever. Erica helps us confront our fears about death—for ourselves and our loved ones—and demonstrates how the last days of life can be among the most inspiring if we learn to leave a legacy of words and values, to forgive and apologize, and to make important decisions about our last hours. Praised by New York Times columnist David Brooks for combining “extreme empathy with extreme tough-mindedness,” Erica Brown is a leading religious scholar with a sense of humor and a gift for storytelling. In Happier Endings, she meets people of all faiths who deal with death in enlightening ways, including a mother who arranged for her children to sprinkle her ashes on a favorite ski slope, an ex-nun who prepares people to die, a group of women who ritually wash the dead, and a family whose grandfather’s Ethical will is read by his survivors each year. Brown leads readers on an emotional journey to prepare for and accept death, drawing on the wisdom found in many spiritual traditions. The crucial step, Brown writes, is becoming comfortable discussing death—and not just in the abstract. This kind of honesty allows for important conversations, from financial wills to last words that reinforce to those you love most what matters most to you. After reading Happier Endings, you will have a greater understanding of what a good death can be and what a life well lived looks like.

A forever letter is a gift that will be read over and over again Inspired by the centuries-old Jewish tradition of the ethical will, a forever letter is a perfect way to share your most precious possessions: your values, wisdom, and love with the people who matter to you most. And you don't have to do it alone. Through empowering stories, sample letters, and writing tips, author Elana Zaiman serves as your companion on this journey of self discovery and deepening relationships. Praise: "I love this little book because it's about writing real letters, a lost art in our time. Even more important, it's about writing letters that matter to people who matter to us. What could be better than putting words to paper to tell people who we are and what we are becoming, and what it is that we cherish and value—thanking them for the way they helped point us toward our own North Star?"—Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak and A Hidden Wholeness "Elana Zaiman has a mission: She loves connection, deep and personal, and wants others to experience the sweet joy she has lived of shared truth-telling. Her forever letter embodies the passing on of wisdom, humbling experience, dreams, and love from one person to another. It is a beautiful concept that all of us should embrace."—Julie Schwartz Gottman, PhD, co-founder of the Gottman Institute and author of Ten Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy

In the first book of its kind specifically for Catholics, theologian, spiritual director, and social worker Sr. Mary Petrosky, F.M.M., shows how a spiritual will—a document that outlines your values, intentions, and hopes for the future—can help you focus on what’s most important in your life. As you grow older, it will be something you’ll want to share with those you love. The Journey Never Ends guides you through the process of preparing a spiritual will as an expression of your life’s intentions. If you are a Catholic or Christian of another background, you will find this a useful tool for creating the kind of life you want to live now in order to positively impact the world around you. In addition, like a traditional will, it will help you create a legacy for your family. Petrosky has helped people on three continents find joy and meaning in their lives and purpose and understanding in their deaths through her work. Able to communicate theological ideas in everyday language, Petrosky organizes spiritual will-making around a theology of remembering, taking as her inspiration the words of Jesus: "Do this in remembrance of me." She provides a variety of sample wills to illustrate various approaches you can take. In the final chapter of the book, Petrosky will guide you to write your own spiritual will with simple, clear, inspirational prompts and examples. The document is something that could be shared with family, friends, and colleagues later in life. Following the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, who lived life with joy and welcomed his death with openness and optimism, Petrosky guides you in how to best appreciate the art of living—and the way of dying.

Parting Ways explores the emergence of new end-of-life rituals in America that celebrate the dying and reinvent the roles of family and community at the deathbed. Denise Carson contrasts her father’s passing in the 1980s, governed by the structures of institutionalized death, with her mother’s death some two decades later. Carson’s moving account of her mother’s dying at home vividly portrays a ceremonial farewell known as a living wake, showing how it closed the gap between social and biological death while opening the door for family and friends to reminisce with her mother. Carson also investigates a variety of solutions--living funerals, oral ethical wills, and home funerals--that revise the impending death scenario. Integrating the profoundly personal with the objectively historical, Parting Ways calls for an "end of life revolution" to change the way of death in America.