An Advanced Directive for Health Care, more commonly called a Living Will, is a legal document that provides specific instructions for health care. These instructions come into play when the senior who created the Living Will can no longer communicate because they are incapacitated in some way. The directive can stipulate what kind of medical procedures the seniors wants, what kind they don’t want and the conditions under which these choices apply.

Seniors with a Living Will are more likely to get the kind of care they want in the long run. Plus, creating these directives gives seniors a sense of ownership at a time when they may feel like they are losing control of their life. A Living Will can also help family members make difficult decisions regarding their loved one and, in the end, it will help the family feel less burden and guilt.

Some of the procedures and devices commonly covered in Living Wills include CPR, ventilators, pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and artificial nutrition and hydration. Living Wills can also grant consent to an autopsy, donate organs to specific people and instruct the handling of the senior’s remains (burial, cremation, etc.).

A Living Will is different than a Last Will and Testament. A Last Will and Testament addresses the distribution of your assets (the things you owned) after your death. A Living Will addresses your physical body and your health care wishes.

A Living Will can be used in tandem with another Advanced Directive, a Durable Power of Attorney, to ensure your best interests are represented even when you can no longer communicate them in real time. The Durable Power of Attorney, which you can learn more about by clicking here, can name a person to make health care decisions for you in the event you become incapacitated. This person, often known as a Health Proxy, will have total access to all of your health information and will act as your representative if needed.

If you don’t have an Advanced Directive for Health Care, or a Durable Power of Attorney naming a Health Proxy, and you can’t make decisions on your own or communicate them, the state laws where you live will determine who makes medical decisions for you. This is usually your spouse if you’re married or your children if they are adults. If you don’t have a spouse or children, the state might name another family member or a close friend to make your medical decisions. Or the state may assign a doctor to your case to make medical decisions in your best interest.

While Advanced Directives for Health Care are legal documents, they are not always legally binding. Your health care providers will do their best to adhere to your wishes, but there might be circumstances that prevent that from happening, like a complex medical situation, a provider’s better judgment or conscience or a facility’s policy.