Health Care Directives

Helping Another Person Make Health Care Directives

If the person you want to help is of sound mind and wants to write down health care wishes, your job should not be difficult. You can use this program to explain the process, answer questions and help prepare and finalize the right documents. Consider the Circumstances If you think someone who needs

About Health Care Directives

A health care directive is any document in which you set out instructions or wishes for your medical care. Most states provide two basic documents for this purpose: A durable power of attorney for health care, in which you name someone you trust to oversee your health care and make medical decisions

Entering Your Personal Information

To begin making your health care documents, we ask you to provide some basic identifying information about yourself. (We assume here that you are making documents for yourself. If that is not the case, enter the information for the person you are helping.) Your State You are asked to specify the state

Naming Your Health Care Agent

One of the most important parts of creating a health care directive is naming an agent. It’s where you name the person who will work with your doctors to direct your health care and make treatment decisions for you if you are unable to do so. This person is usually called your “health care agent,”

Naming Your Primary Physician

In your health care directive, you can name a doctor to serve as your primary physician. This is the doctor who will: oversee your medical care, and make legally significant determinations regarding your mental capacity and the state of your health, if necessary. You will probably want to name a primary

Talking to Your Agent

It may not be an easy conversation to start, but those who make the effort to discuss the hard topic of what kind of medical care they want at the end of life usually find the effort worth the price. You’ll probably want to begin by talking with your agent; then, if you can, discuss your feelings with

State Specific Powers

A handful of states ask you to make decisions about very specific powers you can grant to your agent. If you live in one of the states below, the program will guide you step by step through your choices. Here, we provide a brief overview of each power. New Hampshire You will be asked to decide whether,

Granting Specific Powers to Your Agent

If you name an agent in your health care directive, you can also describe the powers you want your agent to have. Below are some powers you might consider granting to your agent. Prolonging Procedures It is important to specify whether or not your agent may direct health care providers to withhold or

Expressing Other Wishes for Your Care

For some people, health care directives—no matter how detailed about things like respirators and surgery—do not reach the heart of their concerns: spiritual matters, money available for care, dying with dignity, quality of life or the well­being of those who care for them. If you have such concerns,

How Pregnancy May Affect Your Wishes

There is one limited situation in which your specific directions about health care might be challenged or ignored: if you are pregnant. Many states’ laws say that doctors may not withdraw or withhold life support from a pregnant person—or that such treatment may not be withheld if the fetus can be

Specifying Care for Different Situations

Despite rapid technological advances in medicine, much about the end of life remains uncharted. For example, medical experts disagree over whether comatose patients can feel pain and over whether some treatments are universally effective. People who have strong feelings about what medical care they want

Stating Your Wishes for Organ Donation

In most states, you can use your health care directive, to express your wishes about donating your organs, tissues, or body after death. Choosing to Donate Your Organs If you already know whether you want to be an organ donor—or have already made arrangements to donate your organs, or body, you can

Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)

In addition to refusing life-sustaining treatment when close to death, you may feel strongly that if you were in a state of extreme suffering, you would want to hasten death by voluntarily refusing to eat or drink. (To be clear, this means eating and drinking normally, not receiving nutrients through

Specifying Your Health Care Wishes

In your health care directive, you can express your wishes and feelings about medical treatment in as much detail as you choose. For example, in most cases you can: leave all health care decisions in the hands of your agent, if you have named one make a general statement that you do not wish to receive

Making It Legal

When you arrive at this section of the program, know that you have finished with the hard parts of making your health care directives. You have overcome the lure of procrastination to assert your right to keep control over your own health care. However, you still must comply with a few technical requirements

Notarizing a Health Care Directive

Question Do I need to have my health care directive notarized? Answer Depending on your state, you must either have your health care directive signed by two witnesses or notarized by a notary public -- and in some cases, both. You can learn your state's laws here: Finalization Requirements for Health

Revoking Your Health Care Directive

If you have a change of heart and want to revoke or cancel your health care documents, you can do so at any time. If you want to revoke the appointment of your health care agent (or an alternate agent), most states require that you either deliver a written notice to your agent and health care providers

Storing Sharing and Registering

Ideally, you should make your wishes for your future health care widely known. Give a copy of your health care documents to your agent, if you named one, and store the originals in a safe place where loved ones will be able to find them in an emergency. You may also wish to distribute additional copies