Health Care Powers of Attorney: decisions about life support

Wednesday’s daily focus: estates, wills, trusts, and probate law

With a living will in Illinois, you are telling your doctor not to take any special life-saving procedures if your condition is terminal.

With a health care power of attorney, you have the choice to give your agent much more discretion in what kind of health care decisions you want. The standard power of attorney form has three options concerning what life sustaining treatment you wish to have. Most people opt for one of the three – the three options on the standard form fairly cover the range of options, thereby giving direction to your agent of what your wishes are, without being overly specific as to cover every conceivable scenario. You do not, however, have to select any of the three options on the standard form. You may, in fact, write your own wishes regarding what life sustaining treatment you wish to have.

Moreover, your choices about what kind of medical care your agent decides for you apply to both terminal and non-terminal conditions.

The standard choices are:

• “I do not want my life to be prolonged nor do I want life-sustaining treatment to be provided or continued if my agent believes the burdens of the treatment outweigh the expected benefits. I want my agent to consider the relief of suffering, the expense involved and the quality as well as the possible extension of my life in making decisions concerning life-sustaining treatment.”

• “I want my life to be prolonged and I want life-sustaining treatment to be provided or continued unless I am in a coma which my attending physician believes to be irreversible, in accordance with reasonable medical standards at the time of reference. If and when I have suffered irreversible coma, I want life-sustaining treatment to be withheld or discontinued.”

• “I want my life to be prolonged to the greatest extent possible without regard to my condition, the chances I have for recovery or the cost of the procedures.”

How a lawyer can help you: health care decisions are critical in a power of attorney. Your attorney can guide you through the legal consequences of your choice to one that will honor your values.

Talk Like A Lawyer

Bequest: (traditionally,) a gift by will of personal property; (more commonly,) any gift by will

Closing Argument

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

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