Advance Directives: WHAT are they and WHY are they important?

Over the past decades, increasing emphasis on individual autonomy has led to the view that competent adults should decide for themselves how they want to be treated medically.  This shift in practice and policy has been accompanied by the adoption of advance directives that allow competent adults to specify in advance how they want to be treated, with the goal of extending respect for autonomy into periods of decisional incapacity. Advance Directives are written instructions about health care treatment made by adult patients before they lose decision-making capacity.  These instructions are completed ahead of time and only apply when decision-making capacity is lost.  Examples of an advance directive are a health care proxy document and living will.  A health care proxy is a document that allows you to appoint another person as your health care agent to make health care decisions if you are no longer able to do so.  You may give your health care agent authority to make decisions for you in all medical situations if you cannot speak for yourself.  Thus, even in medical situations not anticipated by you, your agent can make decisions and ensure you are treated according to your wishes, values and beliefs.  A living will is a document that contains your health care wishes and is addressed to unnamed family, friends, hospitals and other health care facilities.  You may use a living will to specify your wishes about life-prolonging procedur...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care advance directives Author: Breslin syndicated Source Type: blogs