Advance Directive Document Analysis

It is even worse when one is forced to make painful decisions about ending the support system provided by the health care facility due to prolonged stay in a coma. Advanced directive plays a major role in easing the burden off from the loved ones, when faced with the terrible consequences. Medlineplus (2016), states that the advance directives are legal documents that allow an individual to make decisions about the end-of-life care ahead of time. Examples of Advanced directive are: durable power of attorney, designating a health care proxy, and living will, legally documented for treatment option if one is dying or permanently unconscious.. It also important to have the legal document to the right place, when a decision needed to be made. Advances directive is controversial when it comes to religion, tradition regarding the dying close families, friends and also, physicians. Although the advance technology has positive aspects in extending life longer, at the same time leave us dependent on others, unable to make decisions and in great pain too (Advances directive,2016)

A person’s life can end at any age. They can depart quickly or slowly. End of life care, also known as palliative care, is the care of patients that are not only in their final hours or days but the patients with a terminal illness that has become incurable. End of life care takes into mind what the patient desires so it is recommended that they consider an advanced care plan also known as an advance directive and living will. These documents allow the patient to formulate decisions on the future of their care if, at any point, they cannot vocally express themselves.

The topic of end-of-life care may seem daunting and uncomfortable, and yet most individuals do have unique desires and concerns regarding their provision for the future. Providing the opportunity for that communication, the advance directive and POLST forms allow an individual to explicitly state their wishes before the future. Developed to lessen the apprehensions concerning patients undergoing any extensive and unwanted measures to preserve life at any cost, these medical directives lighten the decision-making burden for physicians and families alike and help comply with the patient’s utmost end-of-life wishes.

On a living will, an individual can express if they would prefer not to be resuscitated or if they don’t want to be living artificially on life-support. Additionally, living wills establish a written declaration of a power of attorney, establishing a person who may legally speak on behalf of a patient who is unable to do so. Living wills are crucial pieces of documentation that are necessary for the dignity and wishes of a person who may fall unexpectedly into a life-threatening condition. If a person does not wish to live artificially on life support, a living will may be the only documentation that can secure their right to die with what they choose to be a dignified death. Unfortunately, living wills are not too common, resulting in countless Americans whose lives are extended long after they wish to live. In order to get a living will, one can either hire an attorney and have the attorney draft a living will or there are templates available that can be filled out and submitted for notarization.

There are two types of advance directives: a Living Will and the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. A Living Will requires a witness or be notarized and consists of a directive that instruct the acting physicians to not utilize medical interventions in an instance that the patient is unable to make their immediate medical decision. The Living Will is the oldest form of advanced directives, requires a patient be terminally ill and it states that its interpretation is only to be assumed by the patient and their physician, there is never to be any family influence or interpretation of a Living Will. Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is also witnessed or notarized and identifies an ‘agent’ to make health care decisions if the signer is unable to make their own decision. An agent is an individual that the patient chooses with great care, due to the amount of power/authority that is assumed to making such decisions. The Durable Power of Attorney does not require that a patient be terminally ill and is interpreted by the identified ‘agent’. There have also been known to be hybrid documents that combine elements of a Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care that acts as an Advanced Directive. (Advanced Directives.,

Contrary there are some faults to that could come into play with a living will. For instance in the state of Michigan it is not required for a living will to be enforced legally so in the end you wants might not even come into consideration. Another fact is that a physician can decide what is deemed necessary under certain circumstances and go against your wishes not to be resuscitated. Given the circumstances your family members might not agree with you giving up the right the life for the sake of their finical security. Terri Schiavo's family never gave up on her and would have been content to take care of her for the rest of her life. In the advent that a person does not have a living will in place one of your close relatives would be instated to make health care decisions for you. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it might not be entirely what you

Preparing for death isn’t a fun topic. But as I’ve seen in my own family, and those of friends, it makes a lot of sense. It reduces confusion, eliminates guilt and assures the patient that what he wants to happen does when it comes to end-of-life medical treatment.

Advance directive structures vary from state to state, but all include two distinctive parts: health care treatment directive and the durable power of attorney (Later & King, 2007). The health care treatment directive is defined as a listing of procedures that the patient may choose to be completed in the preservation of their life or to not be done (Halpern et. all, 2013) Areas that are covered within this section include cardiopulmonary recessitation (CPR), and intubation CPR is used within the health care system as an intervention that is used when the patient’s heart stops. Labeled as do not

Since in the mid-seventies the health advance directives has become the central legal document to make sure that one’s health care wishes is known in a formal corrected way and it is much an open question. Medical technology can entity continually the vital functions of some people that are terminally ill or who be living in a determined vegetative state. Legislation has been accomplish in the District of Columbia and all states other than Pennsylvania to admit efficient persons to express decision around their treatment in the development that they become unable incompetent and terminally ill and cannot engage in decisions concerning their care.

No matter the age, everyone should have a plan for when he or she is comatose and unable to make decisions. When there is no living will or medical power of attorney assigned for the patient the spouse and the patient’s family may not see eye to eye on how to go about the situation. The spouse may want to let the patient die and family may think that the patient will come out of their comatose state or vice versa. There was a case known as the Terri Shiavo case that occurred almost eleven years ago. She had no medical power of attorney or living will leaving her life in the hands of her husband, Michael, who thought he knew what was best and her family who thought the same.

Advance Directives are our wishes when we are at end of life stages of life that give specific direction of how, who, and when to treat us in our final days and hours. We can have documents drawn up to say what we want in the event we are in a state where we cannot voice our wishes aloud. These documents have legal and ethical basis, and they should be followed unless the legally or ethically unable to do so.

With their attorney, your parents all need to create an advanced directive. There are two parts to an advanced directive, a living trust and healthcare power of attorney. This is who will be able to make medical decisions on your parents behalf if they are not able to. This is generally the same individual your parents choose to be their health care agent. They can also specify who they would want acting on their behalf if their first choice is unable to for some reason.

This document will give the person of your choice the power to make your medical decisions for you in the event you are incapacitated in some way. Make sure the person whom you name in your living will knows your wishes with regard to your medical care. For example, if you don’t want to be kept alive artificially in the event you are gravely injured, make sure they know this fact.

Living Wills, sometimes called Advanced Directives, are legal documents accepted in all 50 states. They clearly define a person’s wish to decline life-support or medical treatment in certain circumstances, usually when death is imminent. Generally, a living will takes effect when a person becomes terminally ill, permanently unconscious or conscious with irreversible brain damage.

The advance directive, or living will, is one way of circumventing the ethical dilemma of Quinlan, as it is essentially a set of choices by the competent patient if faced with different hypothetical circumstances. Patients can thus feel comfortable knowing that their competent wishes have been documented and can be easily interpreted in case of catastrophe. However, the authority of advance directives is a topic hotly debated amongst medical ethicists (see Advance Directive Authority). Arguments against directives state that not all factors are considered by the person creating the advance order. Also, in some cases of severe dementia, it is argued that the personal identity of the author is no longer intact and therefore has no authority over the treatment of the “new” person. The debate on this topic is extremely complex, but many of today’s cases are decided on an individual basis, with the directive often being upheld.