If you are not familiar with any other estate planning document, you have probably heard of the document called a last will or last will and testament. As most people are aware, this document can be used to state your final wishes regarding the distribution of your property after your passing. The last will is very commonly utilized, but it is not the only type of will that is used in the field of estate planning. There is another type of will that is commonly called a living will.
Advance Directives for Health Care
A living will is an Advance Directive for Health Care in California. These directives are used to prepare for possible incapacitation.
Before you pass away, you may experience a period of decline. There could come a time when you become unable to communicate your own health care decisions. You would use advance directives to prepare for this contingency.
Medical professionals can sometimes keep people alive for long periods of time through the utilization of artificial means. This is true even when there is no hope of recovery. The person in question is being kept alive, but he or she may be in a vegetative state.
If you were in this position, would you want to be kept alive through the use of life-sustaining measures like feeding tubes, artificial hydration, and mechanical respiration? This is a personal question, and different people would have different responses. Whatever your choice may be, you state your wishes in your Advanced Health Care Directive.
You should certainly make sure that your own wishes are known for personal reasons. At the same time, there are some broader implications to take into consideration.
Your closest family member would be asked to make this life or death decision on your behalf if you did not have an Advanced Health Care Directive. This is a very difficult position to put someone in, and this is one thing to take into account.
Secondly, the entire family may not be in total agreement with regard to how doctors should proceed. As a result, even if your next of kin makes a particular decision, other people who love you may not be on the same page.
This can cause acrimony within the family during a difficult time when everyone should ideally be coming together in support of one another.
Learn More About Living Wills
Our firm has prepared a comprehensive special report that will provide you some more in-depth information about living wills. This report is being offered to our readers on a complimentary basis right now, and you can obtain access quickly and easily through this website.
To get your copy of the special report, visit this page and follow the simple instructions: Free Report on Living Wills.
To Schedule a Free Consultation
If you are interested in the possibility of working with our firm after learning these facts, please select our “Workshops” tab to RSVP for a free estate planning workshop. At that workshop you will be offered a free one-hour consultation with an attorney: www.collinslawgroup.com/seminars/
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