[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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