Advanced healthcare directives are essential tools in estate planning. They protect anyone who wants to have a say in their medical treatment, especially during end-of-life care. Clear Counsel Law Group, with its expertise in estate planning, provides valuable insights into what these directives are, why they are important, and how you can change them.
What Is an Advanced Healthcare Directive?
An advanced healthcare directive is a legal document where you can express your preferences for medical treatment, particularly for end-of-life care. This might include decisions on life support, artificial nutrition or hydration, and when you would prefer to end life-sustaining treatments. It’s often referred to colloquially as a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order or a directive to “pull the plug.”
Alongside an advanced healthcare directive, it’s common to set up a healthcare power of attorney. This allows you to appoint an agent – a person you trust – to make healthcare decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so. This agent is expected to follow the directives you’ve laid out but will be able to communicate with doctors and make decisions in real-time, based on your pre-written conditions. This document can be as sparse or as robust as you choose.
Changing Your Advanced Healthcare Directive
Your wishes and circumstances might change, and it’s perfectly okay to amend a healthcare directive. As long as you have the mental capacity to understand your decisions, you can update your directive. This process involves creating a new directive while revoking the old one. Automatic revocation helps to avoid any confusion. This also helps to keep documents holistic, accounting for everything currently in your plan and not making amendments that can become increasingly off-point. An experienced estate planning attorney helps to keep all of your information and wishes accounted for and well documented.
Even if you’re uncertain about your end-of-life care preferences, it’s still recommended to have an advanced healthcare directive. At the very least, it allows you to appoint a decision-maker, which can prevent unfortunate legal situations and delays in care if you become incapacitated. Without a directive or power of attorney, someone would have to go through guardianship court to make decisions on your behalf, which can be time-consuming, expensive, and stressful.
What Happens If Your Agent Doesn’t Follow Your Wishes?
If the agent you’ve appointed doesn’t follow your healthcare directive, it can lead to significant problems. This disagreement might ultimately require court intervention, likely in a guardianship court, to resolve the issue. This emphasizes the importance of choosing an agent who not only understands your wishes but is also emotionally and mentally capable of making tough decisions in highly charged situations.
Selecting the right person to act as your agent is a decision that requires careful thought. You need to choose someone you trust implicitly, who understands your wishes, and can act on them, even under emotional stress. It’s not just about trust; it’s about the ability to handle difficult decisions during challenging times. It also helps to choose someone invested in your well-being but not necessarily in your estate. While these conflicts of interest are uncommon, they are always a possibility.
One of the main advantages of having an advanced healthcare directive or a healthcare power of attorney is avoiding the complications of guardianship court. This court becomes involved when there’s no one legally appointed to make healthcare decisions for an incapacitated individual, which can lead to family disputes and additional stress during an already difficult time.
It’s Never to Soon
Advanced healthcare directives and healthcare power of attorneys are not just legal documents; they are declarations of your wishes and tools to ensure they are respected. They provide peace of mind, knowing that your healthcare decisions are in trusted hands, even when you can’t make them yourself. Clear Counsel Law Group encourages everyone to consider these important aspects of estate planning. For more information or specific questions, feel free to reach out to their experienced attorneys for guidance on these critical decisions.