The National VSED Advance Directive Committee has developed a better advance directive that instructs either stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) or minimal comfort feeding (MCF) under conditions that the patient/principal specifies. The Committee's VSED advance directive is now available from the Northwest Justice Project here.
Who Is on the Committee?
The National VSED Advance Directive Committee includes five members from different disciplines, professions, and locations.
Philosopher Paul Menzel
Former EOLWA executive director Robb Miller
Estate planning attorney Erin Mae Glass
Law professor Lisa Brodoff
Bioethicist Thaddeus Pope.
Our VSED Directive
A PDF copy of the Advance Directive for VSED is linked immediately below. But we recommend accessing the directive through the Northwest Justice Project because it has guided menus that will complete the form for you based on your responses.
We explain the value of the Advance Directive for VSED in several forthcoming articles:
New VSED Advance Directive: Improved Documentation Avoids Late-Stage Dementia, 53 JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS (forthcoming 2025).
Expanding Use of Our VSED Directive
A number of end-of-life advocacy organizations have been recommending our Advance Directive for VSED. Indeed, even organizations that developed and distributed their own directives now use ours: