Getting Started with Advance Directives

An advance directive helps give a person some control over medical decisions needing to be made at a time when the person may be unable to express what medical treatment or care they would like to receive. While every state has statutes regarding end-of-life decision making, the decision-making powers and the forms used to make those decisions can vary. It is important to ensure you are familiar with your state’s laws on living wills, have your state’s living will form or an acceptable variation of it, and understand the options presented in the living will when going over it with a client. Ever-advancing medical technology begs the question of patient autonomy and the use of extraordinary measures to save or extend a patient’s life. This book focuses on a person’s ability to make decisions regarding end-of-life medical treatment and health care decisions and how each state’s laws allow a person to make these decisions ahead of time. It will also touch on other end-of-life planning devices and look at special problems that may come up when an individual is considering end-of-life planning and executing an advance directive.