What is an advance directive?

Something that shares with the people you love and often with your healthcare providers what matters to you at the end of life. This includes what kind of care you want, the treatments you want and don't want, and the circumstances under which you want all kinds of treatments and those under which you want to only have treatments that keep you comfortable. There is no checklist on earth that could begin to cover every decision that might have to be made and every circumstance, so we, at The Conversation Project, think it's best for the people you love to know your values, to know what matters to you, and to have a general sense of how you want to live to the end of your life.