Documents recording medical treatment wishes, and naming who decides, if a person becomes unable to decide for themselves.
An advance directive records health care decisions in advance, for use if the person becomes unable to make or communicate them. It usually has two parts, and they do different jobs. A living will states treatment preferences - typically about life-sustaining treatment in defined circumstances. A health care proxy, or health care power of attorney, names a person to make decisions that the document itself does not answer.
The second part is generally the more useful, because real medical situations rarely match a written scenario exactly, and a named decision-maker can respond to the actual facts. Without one, providers turn to a statutory list of default decision-makers, which may not reflect the patient's wishes and can leave an unmarried partner without standing.
An advance directive is distinct from a physician order such as a do-not-resuscitate order: the directive expresses wishes, while the physician order is a medical instruction acted on immediately by treating staff.
Many people complete these using a state-issued form without a lawyer, and that is a legitimate route. Advice is worth it where family disagreement is likely, where the named agent lives in another state, or where the documents need to work alongside a wider estate plan - and, in every case, the document has to be given to the people who would need it.
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