LeaveRegistry.com

The need for executing a Living Will

The living will defined

Most of you are prudent enough to execute a will for your estate and wealth in favor of the loved ones to avoid complications and disputes in future. However the living will or the specific Will, that determines and documents your preference of treatment or your decision to stay away from certain type of treatments or life supporting devices or medications, in case of terminal illness or serious accidents, when you are incapable of taking such appropriate and logical decisions, are of recent origin precisely from the middle of eighties. Various legal cases have time and again proved the need to execute a living will to avoid complications in the matters of decisions with regard to the treatment in such situations by the close relatives or by the loved ones.

A living will may well be defined as a written document with date signature and witnesses that details the procedure to be adopted in the treatment of the executor of the will in case of terminal illness or serious accidents that makes the person incapacitated either mentally or physically to direct the health care providers or to make instant decisions on the type of treatment preferred or the willingness or otherwise for the recourse to life supporting devices and medications.

How to draft a living Will?

It is better to draft the living will as detailed as possible so as not to give any ambiguity in interpretations. The will is a living wish or declaration of the person of his preference or otherwise to any or all of the medical treatments and life supporting devices that may also include pain medication, food and water. Though the latter three administrations, pain killers food and water are more in the domain of the health care providers and cannot be included as life prolonging treatments certain states may well include these also in the list and as such they also may well fall within the rightful ambit of the living will and within the right of the patient.

The document needs to include all or relevant medical procedures that would apply in normal cases of serious illness or terminal illness. These may include transfusions of blood, life supporting aids and interventions like dialysis, diagnostic tests and administrations of drugs and recourse to surgeries. The will applies only in case of terminal illness or serious accidents that incapacitate the person in making independent decisions with regard to the treatment and not for normal illness where the person may be able to take logical and independent decisions. If one needs to direct the health care providers in the circumstances of latter type the person has to make a health care proxy that is entirely different from a living will.

The living will avoids many complications in the treatment of a terminally ill patient or a person in coma with regard to the type and extends of treatment to be extended to such a person. The problem in most cases arise only when a dispute arise among the relatives. The situation leaves the loved ones shattered besides leading to unnecessary medications, life support and useless life prolonging treatments that might not been preferred by the patient himself.