Homework Question on Advance Directives
- Research and discuss the legal and ethical basis for Advance Directives such as the Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare.
- Why are these documents so valuable in healthcare situations?
- What legal authority do these documents provide for decision making by family and/or healthcare providers?
- Briefly discuss a situation in which a Living Will might apply and would be of benefit to those involved. Once you have researched and discussed Advance Directives, draft a sample Living Will, indicating the type of content that should be found in such a document.
- Some students take this opportunity to prepare their own actual Living Will, and that certainly is encouraged.
- Your paper should be 3 to 5 typed pages and the format for both papers should be in APA. Be sure to refer to at least one outside source, in addition to your text, as you prepare your paper.
Homework Answer on Advance Directives
Introduction
In situations where patients are incapable of making crucial decisions about their health care, advance directives (living wills and durable and powers of the attorney become necessary utility and extremely important solutions. The purpose of this paper is to explore and examine the legality of these documents to the families and health care providers. It seeks to show the relevance of advance directives in the effort to communicate a person’s wishes about crucial health care decisions in various situations.
Living will
A person may communicate their instructions about their future medical treatments in advance legally through a living will. A living will, therefore expresses a person’s preferences and other health care decisions (especially old-age care) in the event where they lose the capability to reliably make the decisions in future.A living will (also called a medical directive or declaration) is only effective only when the person loses the capacity to make their health care decisions due to terminal illnesses or permanent unconsciousness in accordance to specific State laws. It is also limited to the time when the person is still alive (Sabatino, 2014).
Limitations of a living will
Since the document is written prior to the dire medical conditions, it does not take into account the accurate diagnosis and the specific circumstances the person faces in future. It is limited only to a small range of end-of-life decisions disregarding adjustments and changes occurring to the person’s health. According to Sabatino (2014), the document may not be available at the particular place and time when it is required for use.