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Living Wills – Why We All Need One

News headlines were dominated a few weeks ago with the death of Terri Schiavo and the case surrounding her. Schiavo had been in a vegetative state for 15 years, locked in an unprecedented legal battle between her parents, who wanted to keep her on a feeding tube, and her husband, who did not. The case prompted many of us to start talking about the importance of advance directives. Terri Schiavo did not have any form of advance directive. Advance directives include living wills and durable powers of attorney for healthcare.

A Living Will is a document that lets you decide what kind of medical care you would want, or not want, if you are permanently unconscious or otherwise dying and are unable to speak for yourself. The living will allows you to make the decision, in advance, as to whether life-prolonging medical procedures are to be continued, or withheld or

withdrawn, as well as when artificial feeding and fluids are to be used, or withheld or withdrawn.

The living will generally becomes operative when it is provided to your physician and health care provider AND you are incapable of making health care decisions for yourself, such as when you are permanently unconscious or have any terminal condition and are unable to communicate. You may revoke or change the living will prior to becoming

incapacitated if you wish to do so.

A durable power of attorney for healthcare is a document in which you indicate who you would want to make your medical decisions for you in any situation where you would not be able to communicate them yourself. You do not need to be at end-of-life. The durable power of attorney for healthcare, because it covers more possible situations, is generally considered the more important of the two documents. Many people, however, complete both.

It is not required that you pay fees or consult an attorney to complete these documents, unless you wish to do so.

Rodger Wetzel, licensed social worker and Director of the Eldercare Program, says an advance directive is important at any stage of life. “Any of us, because of accident or illness, could quickly be in a situation where decisions about life support and end-of-life care need to be made. An advance directive is a ‘gift’ to your family and health care providers so they are not left with the burden of wondering what kind of medical care you would have wanted.”

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” Mother Teresa (1910-97), Albanian-born Indian nun, founded Missionaries of Charity, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

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