Who is Dorothy Garske Center to claim to speak with authority on advance care planning?

Dorothy Garske Center has helped people prepare advance directives in Arizona since 1989. We have trained health care professionals on the rights of patients to direct decisions about their own health care. We have presented at local and national consumer and professional conferences. Dorothy Garske Center worked with the Arizona legislature on revisions to Arizona's advance directive statutes in 1991, 1992, and 1994.

Many advisors, some of whom are nationally recognized in the fields of medicine, law, and ethics, generously contributed their expertise to the development of our program. Our primary consultant was Terry Barnett of Tacoma, Washington. Terry is a practicing attorney with extensive experience in medical ethics. The significance of Terry's contribution to this project cannot be overstated.

We have done our best to check our facts, but not all of the facts on many aspects of advance care planning are in. Any advice about advance directives that goes beyond the bare recitation of the relevant law, is, of necessity, substantially based on personal experience and interpretation of the limited available research. There are few rigorously defensible prescriptions.

As we are not lawyers, we do not give legal advice. As we are not physicians, we do not give medical advice. And, we don’t do windows. The content of the advance directive section of this web site was prepared by Michael Baker, and is not necessarily endorsed in its entirety by our advisors.

Here is what others have said about our advance directives program:

"I found the booklet and forms very readable and understandable. I have long had the desire to do this and now I have the means."
Advance directives seminar participant

"Our people who complete the process feel both relief and satisfaction that they have acted responsibly on their own behalf and caringly for loved ones who might be called upon to make responsible health care decisions on their behalf."
Leroy W Calbom, Chaplain & Director of Pastoral Care

"I found the consumer kit very complete. It covers a wide range of options that would be helpful to patients and physicians alike."
Joseph Goldberger, MD

"I used the Health Care Directive form for myself. It contains information I would like to have in every patient's record."
Howard Silverman, MD

"The Dorothy Garske Centers form for both Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will complies with Arizona law and is the most comprehensive document I have seen."
Chester McLaughlin, Elder-Law Attorney & Chair of the Arizona State Bar Association, Patient Self-Determination Act Committee

Allan Meisel, considered by many to be the leading legal authority on the right to die, selected our forms as model documents for inclusion in his book "The Right to Die" (First Edition, John Wiley & Sons).

Regarding those who have illegally copied or plagiarized our work, we try to view it as a complement, except when they have sought to profit financially.

And, the following has nothing to do with us, one month before his death in 1900, Oscar Wilde said: "My wall paper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us must go." Take care what you say about your wall paper.

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