What is a Living Will?

Any experienced Arizona estate planning lawyer will recommend that every person have a living will.  A living will sets forth a person’s wishes regarding prolonged medical procedures when that person is permanently unable to communicate and suffering from a terminal condition.  If you have a stroke, for example, and you are in an unconscious state and only being kept alive by a respirator, your living will can instruct the doctor to turn off the respirator or to keep it operating for a period of time.  It can require liquids and feeding tubes to be administered or stopped.  Most living wills require at least two doctors to certify that you are permanently unconscious or unable to communicate and suffer from a terminal condition before they become effective.  For example, if you have a heart attack but it is not terminal and you are only temporarily unconscious, a living will does not have any effect, and you would still be resuscitated, although for people having an accident, and not have a living will, is better to get an accident lawyers from sites as https://www.autoaccidentattorneysanantonio.org/ to help in these cases.

How is a living will different than a health care power of attorney in Arizona?  Remember that a living will deals with a very specific situation:  when you are permanently unconscious and suffering a terminal condition.  It sets forth your wishes regarding prolonged treatments in such event.  But a health care power of attorney allows a person of your choosing to make health care decisions when you are only temporarily unconscious and not suffering a terminal illness.  For example, if you become unconscious due to a serious car accident, and your surgeon needs to perform life-saving surgery that could also result in some paralysis, the doctor will turn to the person you appointed in your health care power of attorney to make such a decision, the n your family will have to file a claim with Chad Stavley.  Be sure to appoint a person that you trust and will consider your wishes.

Without a living will, a person could find themselves in a situation similar to Terri Schiavo.  Remember that case?   It was a legal battle the lasted from 1998 until 2005 between her husband and her parents.  At issue was whether the feeding tube that had been used to sustain her life since a tragic 1990 accident should be disconnected, thereby allowing her to die.  Terri’s husband petitioned a court to disconnect the feeding tube.  Her parents opposed it.  If Terri Schiavo had a living will, her family and her doctors would have known her wishes.  Without a living will, a seven year court battle ensued costing both sides expensive legal fees and irreparable emotional hardship, although for accident there are also people that help with this such as a dui lawyer in case of intoxication.  And during that time, Terri Schiavo’s fate needlessly hung in the balance.

On a side note, don’t get confused between a “living will”, a “last will and testament”, and a “living trust”.  A living will is effective when you are alive (hence “living” will).  A last will and testament is used to distribute a person’s property upon death via probate.  A living trust is a mechanism for holding and distributing a person’s assets without the need for probate.  For more information about the differences between a last will and testament and a living trust, click here.