Thursday, December 16, 2010 NEET Tips
NEET Tips answers questions posed online to the NEET website.
What is a Living Will?
Living wills allow you to provide guidance on the types of health care you want or don’t want, and, in some states, to name an agent to make health care decisions on your behalf. In Vermont, living wills are called "advance directives" and include both the health care guidance and the naming of an agent.
You may wish to provide health care guidance in the event you are in a critical accident and thus unable to express your health care wishes to your doctors. In these sections you can agree or disagree with statements where a general condition is contemplated, such as if death is imminent, would you nonetheless want extraordinary measures used to keep you alive, or if you are in a coma and the likelihood of recovering consciousness is small, do you want to be kept alive on artificial respiration and other measures. The guidance would be used by your doctors and your health care agent, if one is named, to decide on a course of medical treatment.
The Vermont advance directive also allows you to name someone to make health care decisions for you. On this form, the “principal” is the person who fills out the advance directive document, and the person who they name to make health care decisions for them is known as the “agent.” The agent may make health care decisions for you if you are unable to do so. This could occur if you are unconscious or are unable to understand the nature and consequences of your health care decisions. The agent’s authority to make decisions on your behalf applies only when you lack the capacity to make your own decisions. If you subsequently regain the capacity to make your own decisions, the agent’s authority ceases.
See Articles:
Updated Law Expands Advance Directive Options
Schiavo Predicament Illustrates Need for Advance Directives
Types of Wills
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