What happens if you suffer a catastrophic accident/illness that leaves you unconscious or unable to communicate? How do you make sure your wishes about your medical care are known? Being prepared with an Advanced Health Care Directive is the answer.
Many people think Advanced Health Care Directives are only for the elderly or the sick. However, unexpected end-of-life situations can happen to anyone at any age at any time. No one can predict when unexpected medical situations will happen. It is important for everyone to prepare an advance directive as it can provide you the following.
1. POWER
By planning in advance, you maintain the power to request the medical care you want. You do so by empowering someone you trust (for example, your close family member or friend) to make medical decisions for you as you see fit when you are unable to do so. If you plan ahead, you can authorize the person you trust with certain powers of your choosing so that he or she can make medical decisions according to your specific instructions.
2. PEACE
By planning in advance, you can provide peace of mind both for yourself and the ones you love. More specifically, you obtain peace of knowing that the one you entrust will follow your instructions. Moreover, the one you love has the peace of mind knowing in advance what your specific wishes are regarding healthcare. Especially in time of crisis and grief, the last thing your loved one needs is the dilemma of not knowing what to do on your behalf.
3. PRECISION
Preparing an Advanced Health Care Directive provides an opportunity for you to think about difficult issue that you may have never otherwise considered. Accordingly, Advance Healthcare Directives help reduce confusion and disagreements about specific medical care issues such as resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, tube feeding, dialysis, comfort care, or donating of corpse for scientific reasons. Having an Advanced Health Care Directive in place will provide clarity as to what your specific healthcare wishes are.
At KANG LAW, we include a comprehensive Advanced Health Care Directive for free in our estate planning package. If you have any questions concerning Advanced Health Care Directives, please feel free to contact us.