LIVING WILLS: (Answers) Living wills state how you would like to die (fishing, thank you) and is a mandatory element in proper estate planning. A Penn States study indicated that women often handle a family's affairs in the last days of a relative's life and that a living will would ease the burden.

The study also indicated that the living will can reduce family anguish and assure health care decisions previously discussed by the family.

Fifty percent of 1,227 survivors said that the death of their loved ones was UNEXPECTED. Only 42% told researchers that a doctor had told either the patients or someone close to the patients that he or she was dying in the last days of life. Only 34% indicated that the patient spoke as thought they knew they were dying. (Though that might not be a major statistic in itself. many dying people don't want to increase the burden on survivors and may purposely not saying anything to avoid making the survivors suffer more). Only 9% of elderly decedents had signed a living will as of 1986.