The Importance Of A Living Will

While you use living trusts and wills to designate the beneficiaries of your estate, you should also have a document that sets forth your wishes with respect to life support and end-of-life treatment decisions. At Donaldson Stewart, P.C., we assist clients in Chandler and throughout the Phoenix metro area who are looking to control the manner and type of end-of-life care they receive.

If you are unable to communicate your wishes relating to life support, well-meaning but unwitting family members may defy your actual wishes. Forcing them into a decision of life or death for you puts them in a bad situation. Make the decision for them.

Creating Your Living Will

At Donaldson Cunningham, P.C., we can help you create a living will. This document will be detailed and clear as to your wishes relating to life support and medical treatment should you be terminally ill, permanently incapacitated, or in a persistent vegetative state and unable to communicate your wishes to a physician. The type of medical treatment decisions included in our living will include, but are not limited to, whether you want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), or treatment like artificial nutrition hydration, or breathing assistance. By way of this important document you can dictate your preferred manner of care even if you are unconscious or otherwise incapacitated and unable to communicate your wishes to a physician.

Making Decisions Through a Living Will

Without a living will you may be putting your family in a difficult situation. Making difficult end-of-life decisions for you without any clarification only adds to the grief they are already feeling. A living will helps take that decision-making pressure off their shoulders. By completing your own living will, you have made these decisions ahead of time, leaving your family to carry out your wishes rather than wondering what you would have wanted.

Contact an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Today

For more information or to schedule an appointment with an experienced attorney regarding a medical directive, also known as a health care proxy, a living will or a health care power of attorney, please contact us today or call us at 480-792-9770.