If you would like to create a comprehensive Advance Directive,
you might find at least some of the following 24 Questions useful.
After you have a draft of your Answers,
you can look at the forms provided by your state
to see where your Answers might best be placed.

PART I. Scope of Your Declaration
& Appointing Proxy Decision-Makers

1. Should your Advance Directive for Medical Care apply only
when you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious
or should it apply to all situations in which you are
not capable of making medical decisions
or are unable to express your wishes?

2. What person or persons should make medical decisions for you
if you become incapable of making your own decisions
or unable to express your wishes?

3. When and how should your proxies be empowered
to make medical decisions?

PART II. Quality-of-Life Issues

4. What level of personhood
do you wish to preserve thru medical care?
When—according to your own criteria—
would you become a former person?

5. Where would you draw the line between
a quality of life worth preserving
and the remnants of biological life
that should be mercifully shut down?

6. How do you want to be treated if you get Alzheimer's disease
or some other condition that limits your mental abilities?

PART III. Pain Control, Nursing Home,
Financial Limits, & Medical Information

7. If you are in serious pain, what do you want done?

8. Do you want to be put into a nursing home?
If so, for how long, under what conditions, and for what purposes?

9. Where would you prefer to die?

10. Will you put  financial limits on your terminal care?

11. How much do you want to know
about your medical condition and prognosis?

PART IV. Life-Ending Decisions

12. When should all curative treatments be ended?

13. When should End-of-Life Medical Orders be written for you?

14. How long should you be maintained by life-supports?

15. Should food and water ever be withdrawn or withheld
in order to shorten the process of your dying?

16. Do you endorse more active means of ending your life?
Do you believe you have a right to die?
Voluntary death? Merciful Death?

17. Under what conditions would you request death?

18. Do you wish to join the One-Month-Less Club?

19. Which definition of death should apply to you?

PART V. Disposition of Your Remains

20. Do you wish to donate your organs
to other persons who need them?

21. Will you donate your body
for use in medical science or education?

22. What other plans have you made for your remains?

PART VI. Philosophical-Religious Beliefs
& Readiness for Death

23. What philosophical, ethical, or religious beliefs do you hold
that are relevant to your medical care and end-of-life decisions?

24. Are you ready to die now? If yes, explain.
If no, what preparations (practical, interpersonal, spiritual)
would make you more ready to die?
What projects do you wish to complete before you die?