End of Life Planning: Living Will, Advance Health Care Directives

Advance Health Care Directive (Living Will)

I hear stories about people in a coma and on life support equipment for months and even years. Can I do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen to me?

The answer is yes. It is called end-of-life planning. Unfortunately, some people would rather not engage in such planning, believing it to be morbid and unnecessary. This type of avoidance can burden your loved ones, who may be called upon to make life-and-death decisions for you.

Importance of End-of-Life Planning

Problems with health care decisions often arise when a person has not done end-of-life planning. Notwithstanding the availability of easy-to-fill-out forms that will inform your healthcare provider of your specific instructions and preferences if you are unable to make end-of-life decisions on your own. In these situations, family members are often called upon to make intensely personal choices that can impact their loved one’s length and life quality.

Planning Consent In Advance

If you have done your end-of-life planning, your close family members will understand your wishes and not have to speculate on what treatments you would have consented to or not to keep you alive.

Advance Health Care Directive

You may set out your desires concerning your preferences in receiving life-prolonging medical care through a legal document known as an advance healthcare directive.

Having prepared this directive does not replace you being able to consult with your doctors about your treatment options. This fact is especially true should you become seriously ill and need to consult your doctor about your end-of-life options.

Any advance directives that you have already prepared and submitted to your healthcare provider will not come into play unless and until you become so physically or mentally incapacitated you are incapable of making end-of-life decisions. It would be best to have a serious conversation with the person you want to name as your agent.

As long as you remain mentally competent and have sufficient legal capacity, you can revoke or change your advance directive regarding your healthcare preferences at any time.

A Living Will is Neither a Will Nor Trust

States differ on what they call end-of-life legal instructions. Some states call it an Advance Healthcare Directive. Other states refer to it as a Living Will. They both serve the same purpose.

The term living will is often confused with what estate planning professionals call a pour-over will or living trust. A living trust is a way of preserving a person’s assets to avoid the expense and time of going through probate. Neither of these has anything to do with making health-critical decisions involving your end-of-life choices.

A living will, or healthcare directive, aims to prepare a legal document that clearly sets out your end-of-life preferences concerning whether life-saving measures should be taken to extend your life depending on your condition and your expressed preferences in your directive.

You decide to receive life-extending emergency measures and under what specific health conditions you would consent to such measures being taken. These types of issues are deeply personal decisions.

End-of-Life Preferences

Some people express their need and desire to die with dignity and are adamant about not having their lives prolonged by artificial means when there is little hope of recovery. Others choose to have life-saving measures taken under most conditions, and some insist on requiring extraordinary measures to be taken if there is any possibility of recovery.

These preferences are highly personal decisions and must be considered with sensitivity and respect for the one making them. For this reason, it is advisable to have an depth consultation with your doctor before preparing a healthcare directive.

Designation of Health Care Agent

A Durable Power of Attorney

In many states, if a third person is designated to make important healthcare decisions on the patient’s behalf, you may be required to obtain a durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions. This is used mostly in cases involving patients who lose their mental capacity to make informed decisions because of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or other severe forms of dementia such as Lewy Body.

Alzheimer’s is among the most frightening and disabling forms of dementia. At the beginning of dementia, the person’s cognitive decline can be slow, but once the disease accelerates, it can quickly result in a steep decline in memory and judgment.

End-of-life healthcare experts believe that a patient who begins to show early signs of dementia should, at the very least, obtain and complete an Advanced Healthcare Directive and provide certified copies to their medical provider and close family members.

The person you formally designate as having a durable power of attorney over you must follow your previously stated instructions and expressed intentions. Make sure you choose a person who knows you well and who you believe possesses sound judgment. Sadly,

Ideally, this requires that your healthcare agent be adequately informed to exercise judgment for you. This agent should know your attitudes on death and your religious faith. This should also include knowing your feelings about the quality of life you would find acceptable if you were severely incapacitated.

The Social Purpose of Advanced Health Care Directives (Living Wills)

A health care directive also serves a larger social purpose saving billions of dollars in unnecessary and unwanted end-of-life care costs.

While healthcare directives are not always the best course of action, they can substantially reduce the cost of medical care for dying or terminally ill patients who choose not to have life-sustaining treatments or other expensive end-of-life care.

Remember to keep two copies of your healthcare directive and an original. Consider leaving the original healthcare directive with your attorney and one with a family member or loved one. Finally, ensure your medical provider keeps a copy in your medical files.

Concluding Thoughts

End-of-life care of a loved one can be a confusing time for the one experiencing end-of-life care. It can also be confusing for the caregiver, family, and the one designated to be the healthcare directive decision-maker.

The patient’s end-of-life memory and cognitive state can appear almost non-existent. Yet the death and dying scientific studies clearly show that end-of-life patients still have the means to experience life’s primal feelings, such as fear, insecurity, love, and even states of bliss.

Since the patient remains in a state to still feel emotions, the main priority for the caregiver is to relieve the patient’s pain and minimize unnecessary distractions so that the patient can experience a deeply meaningful, emotional, and final loving exchange with those closest to them.

For Those Left Behind – Grief Counseling

There can be nothing more painful than the loss of a loved one. Should you need support in the grieving process, consider connecting with an experienced and verified grief counselor.

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