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: Bioethics Today Tags: Health Care advance directives Author: Breslin syndicated Source Type: blogs