[Chat] Advance directives

Stephen J Gewirtz gewirtz at bellatlantic.net
Sun Mar 27 22:27:02 EST 2005


One thing that the Terri Schiavo case has driven home is the importance 
of writing advance directives on whether you want to be kept alive under 
all circumstances, or whether you want no artificial feeding or 
hydration or respiration or other medical interventions under 
appropriate conditions, or whether you want something in between.  The 
forms for advance directives are available for download from the web 
site of the Maryland Attorney General:

http://www.oag.state.md.us/Healthpol/adirective.pdf

In your directives, you can designate someone to make decisions for you 
if you cannot make them yourself.  That is primarily what I plan to do, 
since I find it difficult to describe in words the situations in which I 
would or would not want to be kept alive, and since I trust my children 
to make the right decision for me.  The designation of a health care 
agent is the first part of the form, and you can indicate the powers 
that your agent will have and when they will take effect.

The second part of the form is for designating what measures you wish to 
be taken and what measures you wish not to be taken to prolong your life 
under appropriate conditions (or you can leave decisions entirely to 
your agent).

Also included are a living will and an organ donation addendum.

All of these forms, if properly witnessed (a notary is not needed in 
Maryland, but may be in other states -- New York requires notarization) 
are legal documents which will prevent what happened with Terri 
Schiavo.  The hard part is deciding what you want to say in the 
documents, but the law recognizes that the choice is yours.

The documents should be reviewed periodically.

Steve.





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