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This information was provided by Richard H. Hallstrom, Attorney At Law, for Plan-My-Estate.com.
A Living Will, known in most states as a Directive to Physicians or Healthcare Directive, sets out your wishes about what extended medical treatment should be withheld or provided if you become unable to communicate those wishes. The directive creates a contract with the attending doctor. Once the doctor receives a properly signed and witnessed directive, he or she is under a duty either to honor its instructions or to make sure you are transferred to the care of another doctor who will.
Many people mistakenly believe that healthcare directives are used only to instruct doctors to withhold life prolonging treatments. In fact, some people want to reinforce that they would like to receive all medical treatment that is available -- and a healthcare directive is the proper place to say so.
A Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare -- called a healthcare proxy in some states -- gives another person authority to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make them for yourself. Unlike a healthcare directive, this document doesn't necessarily state what type of treatment you want to receive. You can leave those decisions to your proxy if you feel comfortable doing so. Ideally, however, the two documents will work together. For example, your healthcare directive may contain a clause appointing a proxy (sometimes called an attorney-in-fact, agent or representative) to be certain your wishes are carried out as you've directed. Or you may create two separate documents, a directive explaining the treatment you wish to receive and a durable power of attorney appointing someone to oversee your directive.
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