Assigning Someone To Speak For You
When you create a living will, you will also want to appoint a legal health care “proxy” or representative to speak on your behalf. This is also called a durable power of attorney for health care. This is done through a separate legal document. The person who is assigned as your health proxy will also be given legal permission to handle these decisions. The power of attorney and the living will can be viewed as two complementary documents that work hand in hand to make up a complete advance directive.
Keep in mind that selecting someone for this all-important role is not easy, since the person needs to truly understand your thoughts on critical health issues and how you would want things done in a variety of situations. Some of the types of scenarios to consider in this document include artificial respiration, feeding tubes, resuscitation efforts, organ donations and preferences for burial or cremation, among other things.
What It Costs
What you will need for a living will varies from state to state. Some places require that the document be witnessed by a notary, while others don’t make this mandatory. Since there are so many factors to consider, the experts recommend that you have your living will written by a licensed attorney who can offer some guidance in crafting the appropriate language and information and making sure what you include is relevant in the state in which you reside.
If you have attorney who handles estate planning issues for you, you can ask him or her to also draft this document for you. Or, if you haven’t gotten that far yet in planning for the future, you might find an attorney to begin with this document. Look for attorneys who specialize in elder issues to help you with this task. You can go to the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys to find someone in locally. Also remember that while you may not be ready to think about the future yet, you never know when you might be inflicted with a terminal illness or be in a serious accident, so it’s best to prepared for anything, regardless of your age.
The cost to hire an attorney to draft an advanced health care directive ranges from $250 to $500, depending on in which state you reside.