Remove the Emotion from Family Health Crises with a Living Will

When a loved one is suffering from a health issue that prevents them from making their own decisions, a living eliminates the need for a family to decide how much and what type of medical treatments should be administered.

A living will, or an advance medical directive, is a document that spells out your wishes specifically to dictate what you want to happen if you are stricken with a terminal illness or an injury that causes you to be unable to participate in health care decisions. The purpose of a living will is to make it easier for your loved ones to know what your wishes would be if there is no chance for recovery or improvement in your condition. Advance directives usually tell your doctor that you don't want certain kinds of treatment. However, they can also say that you want a certain treatment no matter how ill you are.

There are a variety of living will forms available commercially at office supply stores or online, and most of them require you to declare your intentions in regard to specific types of life-sustaining procedures such as kidney dialysis, surgery, CPR, chemotherapy, or artificially supplied food or water. Critically ill or elderly people often include in living wills a "do not resuscitate" order—meaning that they do not want cardiopulmonary resuscitation performed on them should they stop breathing or go into cardiac arrest.

A do not resuscitate (DNR) order is a specific kind of advance directive that is usually created before surgery or during a hospital in-patient registration. A DNR is a request not to have CPR if your heart stops or if you stop breathing. If a DNR is not in place, hospital staff will try to help a patient whose heart has stopped or who has stopped breathing. DNR orders are put into medical charts by doctors, and they are accepted by doctors and hospitals in all states.

An advance directive is different from a medical power of attorney, which authorizes someone else to make health care decisions for you if you are no longer capable of making them with the assumption that you will survive the illness. On the other hand, a living will declares your intentions in case of a terminal illness or persistent vegetative state—a situation where there is reasonable doubt that you will be able to recover or improve. Both documents are a good idea to have on hand, and they can both be combined into one document.

Each state has its own specific regulations governing the language and form of advance directive orders, so you should check into the specific laws of your state to be sure you’ve covered everything correctly from a legal standpoint. Having some type of signed directive in place is better than having nothing, but the more ironclad your instructions are, the easier it will be for your loved ones to know what your wishes are if you’re unable to tell them.

For more information about advance directives, visit "The U.S. Living Will Registry". This website electronically stores advance directives, and makes them available to health care providers 24 hours/day via secure Internet or telephone -facsimile. Fees for this service are dependent on the health care providers, or you can register your forms individually for a lifetime fee of $125.

The emotional decision about whether to keep a person alive artificially or remove them from life-sustaining equipment can be devastating to family unity. For most people the idea of having to make such a decision is too much to consider. To take the emotion out of the decision before such a situation ever arises, you should create a living will.