Life Choices
COMMUNICATING ABOUT END OF LIFE
Life Choices: Page 4 of 36
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Advance Directives: Introduction
Health care choices directive | Living wills
Introduction to advance directives
You may become physically or mentally unable to communicate your desires for medical care if you have an accident or become ill. Your family and doctors will better understand your preferences if you have expressed them in writing.
One way to accomplish this is through an advance directives form (six page excerpt from the pdf version of the Life Choices publication) that names a durable power of attorney for health care choices and includes a health care choices directive.
It is important to remember that you have a constitutional right to refuse any medical treatment, including those that prolong your life. You also have the right to name another person, called an agent, to make health care decisions for you if you lose the ability to make your own decisions.
Advance directives allow you to state exactly what treatments you do or do not want if you are unable to communicate your wishes.
Many people have living wills and mistakenly believe this document will communicate their treatment wishes in any situation in which they are incapacitated. Even if you already have a living will, you should consider creating a health care choices directive.
Many living wills apply only when you are near death and do not include the withdrawal or withholding of artificial nutrition and hydration. Health care choices directives address these issues and give specific instructions.
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