Today's column.

Sure, fill out a living will because it might let you and your loved ones avoid heartache and agony at the end of your life. But here's another reason: It'll potentially save your heirs and society tens of thousands of dollars.

Especially in Maryland, which is one of the most expensive places in the country to become terminally ill, according to newly published research.

Only 34 percent of Marylanders have living wills, says Dan Morhaim, a physician and Baltimore County delegate. He and Johns Hopkins public health professor Keshia Pollack just did a survey that he says will be the first study of its kind when they publish.

That means two out of three Maryland adults haven't issued legally binding medical instructions in case they can't make decisions.

Two out of three patients risk being kept alive by well-meaning doctors and family when, in fact, their lives are over.

And two out of three risk triggering enormous financial costs that deliver only miserable dividends.

Read the whole thing here. Read the Maryland attorney general's information sheet about living wills here. Fill out a wallet card telling medical professionals you have a living will here. Get Maryland's advance directive form (the legal name for a living will) here.