Lingerie, Tupperware and murder mystery parties. They've been the rage for years. Now add a new one to the list: living wills parties.  Some Americans, prompted by their desire to avoid the problems that surrounded the Terri Schiavo case, are gathering at parties where they balance their chardonnay along with clipboards holding living will forms.

"People are sitting around, munching on brie and talking about dying," says Dan Nicholas, an insurance salesman, while hosting a living wills party last week at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif.  "It's your perfect Friday fun outing," he adds dryly. "One of my friends said today, 'Oh, you're having that grim reaper party.'"

Leslie Piet, a 52-year-old registered nurse in Bel Air, Md., hosted a party earlier this month. So did Rose Ingber of Mays Landing, N.J.  Schiavo, who suffered severe brain damage in 1990, died March 31 after her husband won a prolonged court battle to withdraw her feeding tube. Since her death, interest in living wills has grown markedly.  Requests for a popular form called Five Wishes, which is the form Nicholas used at his party, increased from 50-100 a day to more than 6,000 some days, says Paul Malley, president of Aging with Dignity, the non-profit organization that provides the form.
 

--Kornblum, Janet, "Living wills go out socially," USA Today, 4/27/05

Click here for Leslie Piet's tips on how to host a living will party

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