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Ethical Wills 

Ethical Wills

An ethical will can be described as a love letter where you share your values, blessing, life’s lessons, hopes, dreams, regrets, and forgiveness with your family and friends.   An ethical will is not a legal document such as a Last Will & Testament, a Living Will or Medical Directive.

The practice of writing what could be considered an ethical will can be found as far back as the Old Testament.  During the Renaissance, women who were not allowed to own property wrote what could be considered an ethical will.

Ethical wills are written at different stages in an individual’s life, such as the birth of a child, a graduation, a marriage, a divorce, when facing a life threatening illness or towards the end of one’s life.  The wonderful thing about an Ethical will is that it can be written and shared with family, friends and the community during your lifetime.

The St. Paul/ Minneapolis area is very fortunate to have the originator and author of Ethical Wills, Barry Baines, M.D.  Dr. Baines is the Chief Medical Officer of UCare Minnesota and Associate Medical Director for Hospice of the Twin Cities.

I received my training on how to write an ethical will from Dr. Baines.  I offer small group workshops which consist of three, two hour sessions, conducted over a period of three months with the expectation that at the end of the third session participants will have read the book and completed a rough draft of their ethical will.

Copyright February 2008