Most Americans die in a hospital, nursing home, or other health care facility. Doctors who are charged with preserving life are generally legally powerless to provide other than minimum care due to their malpractice fears. The less than ideal doctor-patient care is further compounded by the fact the doctors run the risk of caring out actions that may be contrary to their patient’s wishes whilst unconscious. Consequently, the doctors look to family members with the legal authority for instructions and decisions.
Problems arise where spouses, partners, and other family members disagree about what’s the proper course of treatment to take to preserve or terminate life. In the most complicated scenarios where everyone is an emotionally bankrupt, these disagreements wind up in court, where a judge, who usually has little medical knowledge and no familiarity with you is called upon to decide the future of your treatment and possibly the termination of your life. Such legal battles are extremely costly, time-consuming and cause undue pain to those involved. In a worse case scenario, if a medical emergency arises it could cost you your life.
TERRI SCHIAVO CASE RUNS THROUGH ENDLESS APPEALS, LAWSUITS AND DENIALS
Without An Advanced Healthcare Directive, if unmarried, common-law will have no legal authority to make any healthcare decisions for you. Even when you’re married, the parents may have more legal authority than your spouse. In the Florida Theresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo case (December 3,1963 to March 31, 2005) a legal battle between the wishes of her husband and her parents involved 14 appeals, numerous motions, petitions and hearings in the Florida courts, 5 suits in Federal District Court, a Congressional subpoena, state of Florida legislation, and 4 denials of certiorari from the Supreme Court of the United States, all of which could been avoided with an Advance Medical Directive.
Under the law, you can legally authorize your named Agent, whether spouse or common-law or anyone else, with written instructions through an Advance Medical Directive applicable to a wide range of health care decisions and not just “end-of-life decisions.”
WHAT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A LIVING WILL? IS A LIVING WILL ENOUGH?
Most boilerplate healthcare powers of attorney, healthcare proxy, living will, etc. generally express sentiments about wanting treatments that serve only to prolong the dying process but absolutely no intervention to prolong life. Hospital proxies generally are written to protect the hospital’s financial interests and to limit their potential liability but not yours. Most standardized living wills fall short, limited to what they can accomplish, lacking capacity about day-to-day care, placement options, treatment options and interventions to implement precise treatments to give you, the patient, any chance of recovery.
HOW THE ADVANCED MEDICAL HEALTHCARE DIRECTIVE IS BETTER THAN A LIVING WILL
Healthcare directives can intimately respond to the actual facts and variables known when an actual healthcare decision needs to be made. Your legal decision maker under Advanced Healthcare Directives is also your spokesperson, your analyzer, your interpreter, your advocate with intimate knowledge about you, your wishes, and your values often under the most complicated circumstances fate has placed both you and your partner.
Advanced Healthcare Directives are more precise than most boilerplate instructions. An Advanced Medical Directive should be one of your key estate planning tools, together with a Financial Directive which I discuss in a separate article.
WHEN THE ADVANCED HEALTHCARE DIRECTIVE IS EFFECTIVE IN MEDICAL CARE
Advanced Healthcare Directives are legally binding in most of the 50 states, with exclusive power to act in your stead. An Advanced Medical Directive becomes effective when:
1. You cannot communicate your own wishes for your medical care:
A. Orally, B. In writing, or C. Through gestures, and
2. You are diagnosed to be close to death from a terminal condition, or to be permanently comatose, and
3. The medical personnel attending to your care are notified of your written directions.
Author bio - Rocco Beatrice, CPA, MST, MBAAward-winning estate planning & trust expertMS - Taxation, Master of Science TaxationMBA - Management / TaxationBSBA - Management / AccountingCPA - Certified Public Accountant-----Irrevocable Trust Asset Protection, Medicaid Asset ProtectionLife Saving Advanced Medical Directive71 Commercial Street #150, Boston, MA 02109tel: +1.508.429.0011 fax: +1.508.429.3034
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rocco_Beatrice
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Pocket Living Will - Preserves Wishes And Assets
Tragedy was narrowly avoided. For days Mary lay where she had collapsed in the corner of her bedroom. If it wasn't for an alert mail-carrier she would have died there as well.
But thankfully this story has a happier ending and in no small part due to a little piece of paper she carried with her in her purse.
Mary was 87 years old. She was single - never married and never had children.
Few people visited and she left her home rarely; just to attend church and to buy food.
Early in January 2005, she visited my office (I am an estate planning attorney) to organize her estate.
We updated her documents to include the new HIPAA language.
She desired that all her money (nearly half a million dollars) go to her church. She requested I be her personal representative to carry out her wishes.
At that time she also signed her pocket living will which folds up into the size of a credit card so it could be carried in its clear vinyl cover in her wallet.
One hot summer day last year her mail-carrier became alarmed at the uncollected mail in her box and alerted the police. Breaking in, they found her dehydrated and unconscious in the corner where she had laid for an unknown number of days.
At the hospital an alert physician found my name on her pocket living will which was in her wallet and called me. I immediately went to the hospital to make sure her health care wishes were followed.
Happily, she surprised everyone and began to gain strength and was soon able to carry on simple conversations.
When she was well enough, I transferred her to an excellent nursing care facility where I could go visit her often. It was finally determined that the cause of her collapse was terminal cancer. She died 4 months later.
But what might have happened to Mary if they hadn't known who to contact?
What if she didn't carry her pocket living will in her purse?
The doctors would not know who to contact
She probably would have been assigned to a state funded nursing facility.
The court would have appointed a conservator to make decisions.
Had I not been contacted, her Last Will and Testament might never have been discovered
Her estate would have been declared "intestate" meaning the courts and state law would decide who would receive the inheritance. Because she had no known living relatives, the state would have inherited everything instead of her church.
The good news is that because of the little piece of paper she carried (a pocket living will) her wishes were honored.
Visit http://www.StevenAllen.com for tips and tools on Estate Planning. To obtain a pocket living will visit PocketLivingWill. Steven W. Allen has been a practicing Estate Planning attorney for over 30 years and is the author of four books including "You Can't Take It With You...So How Will You Leave It Behind?". Go to Estate Planning Doctor and download a free chapter.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_W._Allen
But thankfully this story has a happier ending and in no small part due to a little piece of paper she carried with her in her purse.
Mary was 87 years old. She was single - never married and never had children.
Few people visited and she left her home rarely; just to attend church and to buy food.
Early in January 2005, she visited my office (I am an estate planning attorney) to organize her estate.
We updated her documents to include the new HIPAA language.
She desired that all her money (nearly half a million dollars) go to her church. She requested I be her personal representative to carry out her wishes.
At that time she also signed her pocket living will which folds up into the size of a credit card so it could be carried in its clear vinyl cover in her wallet.
One hot summer day last year her mail-carrier became alarmed at the uncollected mail in her box and alerted the police. Breaking in, they found her dehydrated and unconscious in the corner where she had laid for an unknown number of days.
At the hospital an alert physician found my name on her pocket living will which was in her wallet and called me. I immediately went to the hospital to make sure her health care wishes were followed.
Happily, she surprised everyone and began to gain strength and was soon able to carry on simple conversations.
When she was well enough, I transferred her to an excellent nursing care facility where I could go visit her often. It was finally determined that the cause of her collapse was terminal cancer. She died 4 months later.
But what might have happened to Mary if they hadn't known who to contact?
What if she didn't carry her pocket living will in her purse?
The doctors would not know who to contact
She probably would have been assigned to a state funded nursing facility.
The court would have appointed a conservator to make decisions.
Had I not been contacted, her Last Will and Testament might never have been discovered
Her estate would have been declared "intestate" meaning the courts and state law would decide who would receive the inheritance. Because she had no known living relatives, the state would have inherited everything instead of her church.
The good news is that because of the little piece of paper she carried (a pocket living will) her wishes were honored.
Visit http://www.StevenAllen.com for tips and tools on Estate Planning. To obtain a pocket living will visit PocketLivingWill. Steven W. Allen has been a practicing Estate Planning attorney for over 30 years and is the author of four books including "You Can't Take It With You...So How Will You Leave It Behind?". Go to Estate Planning Doctor and download a free chapter.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_W._Allen
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