GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT

In the wake of increased public interest in advance directives, some have suggested an increase in government involvement with these documents.  Others have expressed reluctance to handing these private documents over to government. 

The U.S. Living Will Registry electronically stores advance directives and organ donor information, and provides them to hospitals 24 hours a day.  The Registry has been safely and confidentially storing advance directives since 1996. 

Originally designed to help hospitals store and retrieve these important documents, the Registry’s time-tested, sophisticated system is now available to the general public through Member Health Care Providers and Community Partners.  Rather than start a new government bureaucracy, with increased expense to taxpayers to plan, design and implement a storage system, and then to pay personnel to run and maintain it, your government…state, county or municipal…can become a Partner of the Registry.  Partnership would allow the public to register their advance directives and organ donor information free of charge with the U.S. Living Will Registry through local state, county or municipal offices, and would save the needless time and expense of “reinventing the wheel” to start a system from scratch when one already exists.  Health care providers and doctors would have access to your document, not government.   Since the Registry’s system is up and running, there is no “lag time” to get the system going; Partnership can begin in a matter of days.  Once registered, you are registered for life, and you will receive yearly update letters allowing you to change emergency contact information and confirm that your advance directive and organ donor information still reflect your wishes.  In this way, there will be no doubt that your document is current and up to date.  For more information on how the Registry works, visit “How it Works”.

Partnership is very affordable and is structured to meet every need and budget, from a small town to a large state!  Download the letter from the link below, and send it to your town councilman, county or state representative with your hand-written note in the margin, to encourage them to consider Partnership, and so they will know that you want the peace of mind that comes with registering your advance directive.