What Can a Living Will do?

Most wills are meant for after your passing, but a living will works as its name suggests. This type of will enforces your choices and protects your rights when you’re in an accident or suffer an ailment that leaves you comatose or in an otherwise unresponsive state. A living will solves the problem of being unable to share your medical wishes with anyone.

A living will is a legally binding document where you can lay out your medical wishes for your attorney to present to your family and medical care professionals. For instance, this document can detail whether your caregivers should resuscitate you or intubate you should you need it. Then, you can specify how long you would like your caregivers to wait before taking you off resuscitation or intubation. You can even detail what specific kinds of medical procedures you’re willing to go through while comatose.

When it comes to end-of-life care, you can’t leave it to chance or for when you’re older. Something can always happen, and you need a document specifying your preferences. If you don’t, someone else will make decisions for you.

What Types of Care Can a Living Will Specify?

There are several end-of-life medical treatments that you can dictate terms for in a living will. These are ones you can say you do want, don’t want, or only want to receive until a certain amount of time passes or a specific medical diagnosis is given. For more information on what each of these medical treatments entails in greater detail, contact your medical professional. These include:

• Comfort Care: This can be anything that is trying to mitigate your pain or discomfort. You can specify whether you want to pass away at home, receive pain medications, receive treatments for ailments like dry mouth, or avoid any sort of invasive tests or treatments for the remainder of your life.
• Medications: You decide if you want to receive any medications while comatose or otherwise unable to make decisions for yourself. This can include antibiotics and antiviral medications. If you chose to not receive them, this wouldn’t necessarily mean letting the condition end your life, but run its course.
• Dialysis: This is a procedure used when your kidneys stop working properly to some degree. It can have strenuous effects on your body that you can decide you want to go through or not in a living will.
• Organ Donations: While you should have your choice to be an organ donor on your driver’s license, your living will can update your beliefs if you have changed your mind before your license can be updated. State your current organ donation beliefs in your will to date your current beliefs.
• Resuscitation (CPR): One of the most common end-of-life treatments to touch on in your living will. CPR can restart the heart, but only if you want to be resuscitated at all.
• Tube Feeding: When you’re comatose, you can’t consume food and water, so a tube is used to feed you. This is a treatment you choose to receive or not receive on your deathbed.
• Ventilation: Depending on your comatose state, you may or may not be able to breathe on your own. When you can’t, you can go on a ventilator that will breathe for you, if you choose to allow it in your living will.

What Happens if You’re Comatose Without a Living Will?

If you fall comatose without a living will, you could find yourself at the mercy of your family, friends, and doctors. This may sound overly dark, as they all should have what’s best for you in mind, but no one knows what’s best for you than you.

It’s common for family and friends to want to keep a comatose loved one alive for as long as possible on the off chance they wake up. You may or may not be comfortable with this. It should be your choice how long you’re willing to be comatose in a hospital.

In the case of your doctor, they may suggest the opposite, as they know the likelihood of whether or not you will wake up. Their recommendation, whether it be to keep you alive or even take you off life support machines, may be later or earlier than you want. They may also suggest keeping you alive to donate your organs if you’re an organ donor. This may be something you are or are not comfortable with and need a living will to clarify.

Contact the Estate Planning Attorneys at MVSK Law

Living wills are important documents to set up when establishing your estate. While most other wills are important for how they care for your family and assets after you pass, you deserve to be taken care of as well towards the end of your life. With a living will, you can protect yourself against all the choices someone else can make for you.

Contact the Scranton estate planning attorneys at Mazzoni Valvano Szewczyk & Karam, and we will walk you through the process so you detail everything you need for your end-of-life care.