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Plan for a good death, at any stage of your life.

Friends at the End has given compassionate help to hundreds of people near the end of their lives. Planning ahead may mean talking to your family, your friends and your doctors, and preparing yourself emotionally.

Practical advice and information

  1. Future care planning

    Deciding what healthcare you do or do not want towards the end of your life.

  2. Advance directives

    A formal document that lets you refuse life-prolonging treatment in advance, in case you cannot refuse it at the time.

  3. Power of attorney

    Appoint one or more people you trust to help you make decisions, or to make them on your behalf.

  4. Do not attempt CPR (DNACPR)

    A legal document that tells the medical team not to attempt CPR, for example after a heart attack.

  5. Services and support

    Free personal and nursing care, and the other support you are entitled to towards the end of life.

  6. A good death

    A good death means different things to different people. Some common things to think about.

  7. Personal stories

    The stories of ordinary people that inspire our work.

In Scotland, anyone who is 65 or over is entitled to free personal care if assessed as needing it. Free nursing care is available at any age if someone is assessed as needing it. You are entitled to a broad range of support, not just medical care, towards the end of life. Get in touch if you need help or support finding your way through it.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone for help and advice, email us at info@fate.scot.

Assisted dying and euthanasia

Neither assisted dying nor euthanasia is legal in Scotland, and Friends at the End supports people to have a good death within the current law.

We campaign for a law to allow an assisted death, where a terminally ill person takes a life-ending medication, prescribed by a health professional, themselves. This is different from euthanasia, where someone else, usually a doctor, ends the person’s life at their request. To find out more, see Assisted dying.

Further information and support

Other organisations who can help you and those around you:

“To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity.”

Stephen Hawking

Planning ahead

Whatever the law says, you can already make your wishes known.

Most of the distress we hear about could have been eased by a conversation held earlier. Our free guides take you through it, one step at a time.

  1. Think it through

    What matters most to you at the end of life. Where, with whom, and what you would and wouldn’t want.

  2. Write it down

    An advance directive records your wishes about treatment, in case you can’t say them yourself.

  3. Choose someone

    A power of attorney lets a person you trust speak for you when it counts.

  4. Talk about it

    Share your plan with family and your GP, so it’s known before it’s needed.

If you’re struggling right now

We campaign for choice and help people plan; we don’t provide information about methods of ending life. If you need someone to talk to, Samaritans are on 116 123, free, day or night, and Breathing Space is on 0800 83 85 87. For questions about your own care, your GP or palliative care team is the right first call.