Estate planning can be as simple as drafting a will. It can also involve creating a trust and drafting an assortment of other documents. Many people decide to add advance directives to their estate plans.
Adults never know when they might end up involved in a car crash or experience some kind of medical emergency that leaves them incapacitated. In that situation, the affected individual cannot communicate their wishes to others and may lack the capacity to make legally-enforceable decisions about their medical treatment.
Advance directives are legal documents that provide insight into an individual’s wishes and empower others to uphold those wishes. There are three different types of advanced directives commonly used in Michigan, each of which can be valuable to people in emergency situations.
Living wills
Living wills provide information about an individual’s preferences. However, they are not necessarily enforceable. They simply serve as a guide to those making health care decisions. Living wills provide information about whether a person wants to receive different types of life support or their preferences regarding post-mortem examinations or autopsies. They can even provide clarity about anatomical donations for their families if they have to make difficult decisions with limited time to consider their options.
A do-not-resuscitate order
People dealing with chronic or terminal medical conditions may want to limit heroic interventions intended to save or extend their lives. They may prefer to pass naturally if they experience a cardiac event where they stop breathing or some other type of medical emergency. A do-not-resuscitate order provides direction to first responders in an emergency scenario. However, the document does not necessarily have authority in scenarios where an individual lives in a nursing home or is in an inpatient hospital setting. The policies of those facilities often dictate what support services people receive when they are in need of resuscitation.
A health care power of attorney
Once an individual is a legal adult, others have limited access to their medical information. Even parents usually cannot access medical records or make care decisions without power of attorney documents in place. Usually, only a spouse has that authority. Health care powers of attorney can provide support for those who do not have spouses to speak on their behalf. They can also take the pressure off of a spouse in a very difficult situation.
Establishing advance directives can provide peace of mind for an individual and critical support to loved ones and healthcare providers in difficult situations. People who expand their estate plans to include advance directives have more protection in challenging situations than those who leave everything to the discretion of medical professionals or their closest family members.
