Recently some astute clients have asked me to consider more difficult questions relating to their choices in making a living will. A living will allows you to decide those circumstances when care should be or not be provided. If a person is competent, then the living will won’t come into play. In other words, so long as one can make his own decisions, his family and healthcare providers won’t have to look to a decision that person made in a written document at a time when he was competent.
But if a living will has to be consulted, the maker’s decisions should be clear to the maker at the time the will is made and in the will itself. A maker’s care providers won’t consult the living will unless the maker has a terminal illness and is unable to make healthcare decisions or the maker is in a persistent vegitative state (PVS).
If a person ends up in either of those situations, the living will should answer these questions:
How long should I receive continuing medical care if such care won’t help?
How long should I receive water and food if the only effect is to prolong my certain death?
Have I sufficiently identified the parameters as to when my living will should be effective?
How will my doctors use my living will?
How can I use the circumstances of my passing (and the parameters set forth in my living will) to positively affect my loved ones?
These questions need to be answered before one makes a living will so that the living will can do all that it is designed to do for the maker.
