Living wills allow you to speak for yourself -- if you have put the effective documentation in place in advance. The document is most commonly called a "living will," but that is not necessarily the correct name for it.
The type of documentation that is legally effective depends upon the state in which the decision is being made. The types of documents recognized in various states are Living Will, Advance Health Care Directive, Health Care Proxy, Health Care Surrogate, and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.
These documents usually differ in the formalities of how they must be executed to be legally valid, depending on the specific state law's requirements. They all share the common purpose of providing a person a mechanism to have his or her wishes carried out in circumstances of terminal illness, permanent unconscious state, vegetative state, or brain death.
State in Advance Your Wishes About Extraordinary Life-preserving Measures
The best method for conveying your own wishes directly in such circumstances is the Living Will or Advance Health Care Directive, because in these documents you may expressly state that you do or do not wish specific listed medical procedures to be engaged for you when you are unable to consciously communicate a decision in present tense real time. Such medical measures include organ transplant, artificial respirator, feeding tube, and resuscitation from cardiac or pulmonary arrest.
Appoint Someone to Speak With Your Voice
A Health Care Proxy, Health Care Surrogate, and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care are revocable appointments of another person to make decisions for you. This person is someone who speaks for you. Usually this is a family member, but it could be a friend or attorney. It is whomever you select.
If decisions made about your care are important to you, a Living Will or its near equivalent recognized in your state is important to have in place.
Having your decision formalized also removes the burden of such decisions from family members and avoids controversy within families. The highly publicized Schiavo case in Florida is an example of how dramatic, expensive and gutwrenching such a situation can become.
Legally Execute Your Living Will, Advance Health Care Directive or Similar Enforceable Document
Making the decisions and writing them out in a living will, or its equivalent, are intensely personal. tasks. This is not a subject a person generally wishes to consider. The tendency is to assume "it will not happen to me." It is easy to put it off, but it is not a difficult task.
The legal forms required in the various states are easy to complete. Many states have them online without cost through their state bar associations or state government websites.
To be sure you are preparing a valid enforceable document, and have covered all decision options, though, assistance of legal counsel is best. Forms are, by definition, generic. You may have questions, needs or concerns beyond the information provided on a form document.
Then, once the document is prepared, you need to be sure copies of it are in the right hands: family members, your lawyer, your physician(s), with your other legal documents, and with you in your purse or wallet.
A Living Will Gives You Direct Control
The living will or its equivalent in your state is one means of maintaining personal control over the decisions about you and your body in an increasingly complex society where such control is waning.
It is easy to research your options in your state online before consulting with an attorney. Often legal clinics assist people with living will preparation. Make full use of the resources available to you so that your wishes are clear, unequivocal, and legally unassailable.
References
Terry Schiavo Dies in Florida Hospice, by Jane Roh, 3/31/2005
Living Wills, Health Care Surrogates, and Advanced Directives in Florida - Forms
 |
