The Missouri End of Life Coalition is launching a series of seminars, this week, culminating in a policy summit to be held in Jefferson City in October. The Coalition intends to educate Missourians about end of life options. The town hall meetings will open a dialogue about the importance of living wills and advance directives which lay out a patient’s end of life wishes and desires. Ann Corley, Executive Administrator with the Missouri End of Life Coalition, says people – especially the elderly – must make clear their desires with loved ones and their physicians and get those wishes in writing. A lot of discussion regarding end of life options has come about because of the Florida case involving Terri Schiavo – the brain-damaged woman who lived in a vegetative state until her feeding tube was removed, resulting in her death. Corley says that while the case was a tragedy for the families involved, a lot of good has come from it because people are thinking about how their own lives might be similarly affected. The first of the town hall meetings is scheduled for Thursday in Springfield, followed by events in Lee’s Summit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia and Jefferson City.
