Living Wills Could Be Hazardous to Your Health
Should you have a Living Will or a Healthcare Power of Attorney? Make the right choice
Living Wills Could Be Hazardous to Your Health |
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With the Terri Shaivo situation, there has been a rush to get end-of-life records in order. As a part of that rush, the Living Will has become very much in vogue all of a sudden. Those most familiar with the law, however, are urging caution. In principal, the Living Will is designed to reduce suffering for you and your family as they wach you suffering. If, however, you are non-communicative and you have a Living Will, that piece of paper has more power than any family member -- and even the Constitution of the United States.
Generally, Living Wills only apply in cases of permanent unconsciousness and terminal illness. They are restrictive and specific. And, they are binding. Occasionally, situations require more interpretation than the document will allow. Distraught family members attempting to interpret it for the particular situation are rebuffed legally, regardless if medical personnel may agree.
Far better for achieving the same objective is a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare. This document places the decisions in the hands of a trusted individual who is capable of interpreting the sitation and making a decision in keeping with your wishes. In fact, you may want to use the same form of a Living Will as a guideline for your agent, but NOT record it in any legal form. This then takes the form of "notes" but in an organized fashion that your agent may use as guidance.
Unless you are so totally alone in the world that there is absolutely no one in whom you can entrust the decisions that have to be made when you cannot, a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare is a far better and legally more flexible document. If you use it, however, it is important that you have a thorough discussion with the individual you select as your agent. Your guidance will be a great gift to that individual at a time when emotional stress and grief will be an obvious factor for him or her.
Such end-of-life choices and decisions are common to all people. You will find significant help at The Center for Intergenerational Communication. Not only is the CFIC a great source for knowing what issues to address, it provides many resources to research and record the decisions an individual or family makes.
One of the centerpiece products of The CFIC is the expansive Here to Hereafter: Everything My Family Needs to Know. In an exceptionally well-designed (and patented) PanaVu storage binder, there are over 70 pages of questions with spaces for the answers to be filed in the volume's 12 sections. Questions ranging from the preferred music at your funeral to who should get your cat? Specifically, Section 2: Medical is the tab under which your family will find your Healthcare Power of Attorney (or your Living Will if that is your decision) should they ever need it.
LegalZoom is one good source for on-line preparation of Living Wills and Healthcare Powers of Attorney.
(c) 2005 CFIC