Advance Directive 

An advance directive is a legal document which communicates a person’s wishes regarding Healthcare decisions. An advance directive should be established as a plan for potential incapacity. It will be used by health care agents and medical staff in the event a person becomes incapacitated due to serious injury or illness and is unable to communicate on their own behalf. Without such a plan, a person runs the risk of leaving others in charge of making life-altering medical decisions on their behalf. However, by creating an advance directive a person can eliminate any uncertainty and provide specific directions to their loved ones and medical staff, which may alleviate some of the stress associated with such a decision. 

While a selected health care agent can make certain judgments for a person in the event of incapacity, an advance directive can help guide the specific decisions that the agent is to make on behalf of the incapacitated person. This ensures that a health care agent is acting pursuant to the principal’s specific directions so that the medical decisions being made by the agent are the same ones the principal would have made for themselves if they were not incapacitated. This document is based solely on the individual’s personal wishes for treatment, and it must be created at a time when the person can effectively communicate such requests. An advance directive helps remove uncertainty in the unfortunate event a person loses the ability to communicate.

An advance directive can cover and plan for many medical complications. One example of a health-related decision that an advance directive might cover involves what a person wants to happen in the event they are suffering from an irreversible condition. The advance directive would provide a legal framework that reflects the wishes of the person to ensure that their directives are carried out.