What Is An Advance Directive For Health Care?
An advance directive for health care authorizes the person you choose (called a health care representative) to make health care decisions for you in case you are in an accident or are too ill or too disabled to make those decisions yourself. You can also use the advance directive to give your doctors and other health care providers instructions about the types of end-of-life care that you do want and that you do not want. An advance directive does not include the authority to make financial decisions. If you want to authorize someone to make financial decisions for you, you should sign a durable financial power of attorney. When does the advance directive go into effect? You are in charge of making your own health care decisions as long as you are able to do so. The health care representative does not have the power to make health care decisions for you unless your doctor determines that you are not capable of making and communicating health care decisions. The inability to make health
An Advance Directive For Health Care (sometimes referred to as simply an “advance directive” or a “health care power of attorney”) is a document that allows someone to name an agent to make health care decisions if the individual is incompetent and unable to make their own health care decisions. It allows the agent to consent to medical care, decline medical procedures, deal with issues regarding termination of life support, consent to autopsy and organ donations, and make funeral and burial directions.
