Should You Consider a Living Will?
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a patient's right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, including food and water, as long as that wish is expressed in a valid, written document that complies with applicable state law. Today, most states have living will statutes, and others allow patients to control, through an advanced health care directive, the care they'll receive if rendered incompetent.
What is a Living Will?
A living will is a person's statement to health care providers dictating the types of life-prolonging treatment he or she would not want to receive if confronted with a life-threatening condition making them incapable of communicating desired medical treatment. The purpose of a living will is to make important health care decisions at a time when a person is still competent to make them. It was created to spare a person who is incompetent and near death any unwanted suffering, medical treatment, and health care expenses.
To create a valid living will, a person must be a competent adult. The living will, or a third person if named in the living will, speaks for the will's creator in the event that he or she faces a terminal condition, or is rendered unconscious, and is unlikely ever to regain consciousness. Appointing a person to make health care decisions can be useful because it allows for advocacy on the patient's behalf, which may enable the patient and physician to get past disagreements over the meaning of language fixed in a living will. A physician who refuses to respect the will must transfer the patient to another physician or hospital that will honor the document.
Living wills exempt physicians who follow them from civil or criminal liability as long as the care directives comply with reasonable medical standards. The laws on living wills, however, do not allow civil or criminal remedies for a health care provider's refusal to end life-sustaining treatment. It is therefore important to draft the document with care.
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