Even if a copy of your living will ends up
at the hospital with you — that's hardly guaranteed — doctors routinely don't
know how to interpret them. They may still leave friends and family confused about
what you want.
End-of-life decisions are complicated,
but they can be met with proper planning today
to ensure your decisions will be carried out in the future.
So, have you executed your
medical directive or living will? Was it one you created yourself or downloaded
from the internet? If yes, you might want to reconsider that move while you
can.
Bloomberg recently published an article titled “The Right Way to Craft a Living Will”
that discouraged taking the self-help approach to this fundamental component of
your estate planning. It is important to know there is a “right way to craft a living will” and it does involve more than simply signing on the dotted line of a
pre-printed form.
Essentially, there may come a
time when you are not “available” to make a medical decision – from
resuscitation to feeding tubes to what-have-you. What happens then will depend,
in large part, on how clear your instructions are. There are some definite
shortcomings that can arise, particularly with those free forms you pick up
online.
A medical directive or living
will is designed to speak for you and be some
kind of arbiter. Of course, you can only have so much forethought and the
language used in any document can only be so clear. For example, the original
article illustrates the complex issues surrounding the word “terminal.”
Given the difficultly attending
the whole notion of predicting the course of your future health, consider
appointing a trusted family member or friend to be your health care agent to
make the decisions when you cannot. That way you are not merely trusting a
piece of paper and the interpretation of the same.
Whatever legal arrangements
prove to be the most powerful or expedient, the basic truth is that any plan
can be put to paper. However, to be truly effective the contents of the plan on
that paper and your specific wishes need to be communicated to the people who
will be part of the process.
Make sure your loved ones know
what your wishes are and that they will work to ensure that they are honored.
For more information and articles on
estate planning and elder law topics, please visit our website
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Reference: Bloomberg
(April 9, 2013) “The Right Way to Craft a Living Will”