Health Care Proxy and Directives (The Living Will)

I gave a talk yesterday at my BNI morning group about Living Wills and I thought I would share some of that talk in my posts.

The thing about it is that less than a third of Americans have a living will and the predominant reason for that is on account of it being a relatively depressing thing to get done. You pay money, you talk about what will happen when you are unable to make your own medical decisions and then what your preferences are regarding treatments and various harrowing scenarios such as being in a vegetative state.

However, the fact of the matter is that we all want to be in control of decisions which intimately affect us. I mean, if a medical decision regarding myself is to be made then I want to make it. If I am unable to make that decision then I want a chance to select who will make that decision and an opportunity to provide that person with some instructions regarding my likes and dislikes.

I also think that my providing direction to your decision maker you can take away some of the uncertainty and stress associated with being the decider of a loved one's medical care and not really knowing that the right thing to do is. 

The last point I want to make is that our medical care preferences change over time. You may be bolder when you are young and have young children whereas when you are older you may not want to go to the ends of the earth trying to fight an irreversible illness after having lived a full life. Also, things like a hospital stay can alter your perspective on medical care and that may make a difference in what you want in your Living Will. So, don't be afraid to take another look at that document because you do change over time and so should the instructions you provide to any appointed medical decision maker.