Advance Directives and Living Wills
Advance Directives or living wills are written documents that allow a person to have control over health care decisions if he or she is not capable of communicating his/her wishes or if a person no longer has the capacity to make decisions. These legal documents can state a patient’s choice about treatment, refusing treatment, being placed on life-support, requesting life-sustaining treatment, and at what point treatment should be stopped. Procedures that provide comfort or alleviate pain are not considered life-sustaining.
Two adults who are not related to the person, who will not inherit from the person, and who are not financially responsible for the person making the will, must witness the advance directive/living will. This document becomes effective when two doctors determine that the patient has a terminal illness and they agree that death will occur whether a medical procedure or intervention is done.
A durable power of attorney for health care is a document that grants someone else (an “agent”) the right to make decisions about a person’s health care. The agent can be any adult except a physician or healthcare provider unless related by blood or marriage to the person signing the document.
The person signing the document chooses what powers are given to the agent. Powers can be decision making, giving consent, refusing consent, or withdrawing consent for organ donation, autopsy or treatment of any physical or mental condition. Also the agent can make arrangements for hospitalization, physicians or other care and can request and receive records, and sign releases of records.
A living will/advance directive and a durable power of attorney for health care are recognized under Kansas statutes.
For more informaiton, see http://www.kansashealthethics.org/.
