Living Wills

A living wills are also known as an advance directive, a health care directive, or a physician’s directive. Improvements in modern medicine makes it possible to prolong the lives of those are terminally ill or permanently unconscious. A living will makes known a person’s wishing regarding life prolonging treatment. It informs health care providers and your family about your desires for medical treatment in the event that you are unable to speak on your own behalf.

A living will outlines a series of hypothetical situations and a series of medical treatments that could be applied to those situations. A living will becomes effective when you are incapacitated. Even if your suffer a medical emergency, unless you are permanently unconscious or have a terminal illness, the living will is not going to have any effect.

A living will can be revoked at any time. It allows a person to maintain personal control and ease the burden of decision-making on the family. Forty-two states have living-will statutes that make a properly executed living will legally binding. The living will requires that the person making the living will be competent, and that the will be witnessed by a disinterested person. Once the living wills are valid, the attending doctor is required to follow the instructions listed in the will.