Living Wills -- Do I need one?

Living wills are sometimes called advance directives to doctors. They are called living wills because the document is in effect during the person's life. Living wills are a formal document expressing person's desires regarding future medical treatment and intervention at a time when the person can no longer communicate. Because state laws differ significantly, it is always important to seek competent legal advice especially with something as important as future health care.

One dramatically important issue confronting those who undergo health care is not just whether or not life can be extended, but the quality of that life. Several high profile cases have been in the media, where a terminally ill patient, in a vegetative state, is kept alive for years by extraordinary medical intervention, when the person, if given the chance, would prefer to die. In Arizona, anyone who has the capacity, can make a living will. However, in other states, only terminally ill people can do so. In either case, it is the individual not relatives or the doctors who make the care decisions.

The options in a living will extend from requiring that heroic measures and technology be used to keep a person alive, to specific directives to do not resuscitate. A living will allows an individual to make these decisions when their mind is clear and they have considered all the possibilities. The person making the living will can choose any preference from heroic measures to no intervention at all, depending the person's feelings and sensitivities.

If you are at all concerned about your future care, please give me a call and set an appointment to come in and make a living will.