Many people cringe at the thought of making a living will, but they make things a lot easier for the people left behind when you’re about to go. Bankruptcy attorney Benjamin Ginter, who runs the Law Offices of Benjamin J. Ginter in Cranford, New Jersey and also does wills, discusses what a living will really means.
Advance healthcare directives are written instructions regarding your medical care. The person chosen will carry out these instructions if you’re unable to make your own healthcare decisions. Anyone age 18 or older may prepare an advance directive.
There are several types of directives, one of which is a living will. Also known as a healthcare directive, it basically empowers another person to make the healthcare decisions for that person.
Medical Decisions
Specifically, you give someone power to make medical decisions for yourself if you are unable to do so, using the Power of Attorney. Within that living will, or healthcare directive, you can specify certain types of medical care that you wish to have – and what type of care you specifically do not want.
For example, if you are unconscious and you have an incurable disease, and it looks like you will be in a vegetative state for the rest of your life, you may have previously stated in your living will that you wish no life-sustaining treatment and that you wish to die.
That is pretty much how it works, giving someone the power to make healthcare provisions and decisions for you if you are unable to do so. They were created in response to the myriad advances in medical health technology, which meant that people can go on living long for longer when in the past they would have died. Sometimes, however, the quality of life they have is not what they would have wanted. And the cost of keeping someone barely alive can also be too much for families to shoulder.
Popular Types of Wills
Living wills have proven to be very popular, with almost 45% of all Americans today having one, according to estimates. If you are interested in making one yourself, talk to a qualified attorney with experience in this area to make sure it is water-tight and exactly what you want.
