Breaking News—Living Wills and Healthcare Directives

Living Wills and Healthcare Directives

By Remar Sutton, DCU StreetWise Spokesperson

The recent news has highlighted the need for all of us—no matter our age—to let our family know our desires in regards to life-prolonging medical procedures. Discussions with family members are a starting point but putting your wishes down on paper is very important.

Experts recommend that you prepare two documents—a healthcare directive (or declaration) and a durable power of attorney for health care. The healthcare directive defines the type of care you want or don’t want. A healthcare directive may be called a living will, advance directive, medical directive, directive to physicians, declaration regarding health care, designation of health care surrogate, or patient advocate directive depending on the state you live in. The durable power of attorney appoints someone to be your health care agent. Your health care agent will have the authority to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make them for yourself.

These resources provide more information about healthcare directives and durable powers of attorney.

Medical Powers of Attorney & Living Wills from Nolo.com provides articles about how these documents work, what you can cover, choosing your health care agent, and more.

Advance Directives and Do Not Resuscitate Orders from Familydoctor.org which is provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians. This article, in Q&A’s, provides an overview of advance directives and do not resuscitate orders.

10 Legal Myths About Advance Medical Directives from the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging

A note about third-party links – By selecting links on this page, you will leave DCU's web site and enter a web site hosted by an organization separate from DCU. We encourage you to read and evaluate the privacy policy of any site you visit when you enter the site. While we strive to only link you to companies and organizations that we feel offer useful information, DCU does not directly support nor guarantee claims made by these sites.