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How do you Make an Effective Living Will?

Living will, a remedy to avoid uncertainties in treatment

Life is short and uncertain. Many a person may not know the fate of his tomorrow, and perhaps may be even of the next moment. So what? You may laugh it off. But remember, many people had their loved ones left to the mercy of court decisions and health care providers in matters of their health care when they were incapacitated either by terminal illness or serious accidents that rendered them unable to communicate of their preference of treatment while in coma or in unconscious state. Not only have such indecisions left the lives and emotions of many a loved one shattered but also made them incur unwanted and unnecessary medical expenses which you might have turned down had you been in a state of consciousness. Your lethargy or carelessness can make the life of your beloved ones miserable and as such you need to be responsible, farsighted and prepared for such eventualities. A living will is the remedy to avoid all these complications.

A living will is a documented legal record as per the formats prescribed signed by the executor and properly witnessed, which clearly spells about the preference of the treatment one would like to under go in case the person who executes the will falls seriously ill or gets incapacitated by serious accidents making the person unable to communicate about his decisions during the course of such treatments.

The document, which clearly spells out the preferences of the executor about the conduct of the treatment with details such as the life supporting devices or medications that he would like to be administered or given or to be avoided is a legally binding document on the physicians and health care providers. The objective of such a will is to save the near and dear ones from many embarrassing moments in matters of treatment during terminal illness or serious accidents according to the wishes of the patient without any legal complications.

The living will is best drafted in detail clearly mentioning the treatments and drugs and also the life support devices one would prefer in the eventuality of an incapacitated stage either by illness or accident including the need for the pain relievers, food and water since them also forms the life prolonging aids in certain state. While drafting the will it would be wise and prudent to discuss the matter with the health care providers and the loved ones who have to take care of the implementation of such a will.

The living will and the health care proxy

Another point one would like to know is the need for a health care proxy in addition to the living will. The health care proxy and a living will are mutually supportive. In a health care proxy you name a person as the trust to take all decisions in matters of treatment when you are in an incapacitated stage. However a mere health care proxy would not suffice as has been proved in many cases. In one such incident the plea of the husband to remove all the life supporting devices was turned down by the hospital authorities and was also endorsed by the court of law on the ground that the preference of the patient was not clear.

The husband in the instant case is facing legal action for huge sum of money from the hospital authorities for having kept the patient alive for many more months for no valid reason. Had there been a living will to support the case the problem wouldn’t have arisen. Similarly the living will may not support the decisions with regard to decisions on treatment methods that were not foreseen at the time of the execution of the will or later developments in the medical science. A health care proxy can help dealing with such situations.