Advanced Health Care Directive - What Should You Do?
Medical patients at hospitals, nursing homes, etc. are now being asked to sign documents regarding their wishes if they become incapacitated by illness or injury. The last time you should be signing such a document is during a time of stress like a hospitalization. Documents like a “Living Will” or a “Durable Power of Attorney” or an “Advanced Health Care Directive” sound more positive than the end results in many cases. When you are healthy, you may be inclined to sign away rights that you do not fully understand, because no one can predict what medical dilemma you might face, much less the medical options available at such a future point.
Adults of all ages and with all levels of health should consider carefully selecting and signing an appropriate document while you are sound of mind. I am personally acquainted with people who were depressed when they received serious, life-altering medical diagnoses and who would have signed away rights they should not have due to their psychological state. Their conditions subsequently improved such that they expressed how tragic it would have been if they’ve signed away rights to certain levels of medical care, or had even signed a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order. A DNR order should not be signed without carefully considering all ramifications. Consider the true case of Mary Jo Estep, an active retired school teacher who had surgery for a broken hip. Upon admission to a nursing home for her recuperation, Mrs. Estep signed a living will that stated she was not to receive extraordinary treatment measures if she was dying. When a tired nurse administered an incorrect medication after this routine surgery, a physician interpreted the living will as Mrs. Estep not wanting treatment. She was not revived from the distress caused by the medication error and she died.
Before signing any such documents, we encourage you to visit the Patients Rights Council website, http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/index.htm. This pro-life organization has been in the vanguard of education about euthanasia and physician assisted suicide for years, and they changed their name in January 2011 to better reflect their work.
Gregg and I signed our own Protective Medical Decisions Documents (PMDD), which are protective Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care documents and we urge others to do the same. You can read about and order the PMDD through this link http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/pmdd.htm. As a registered nurse, I reviewed the PMDD carefully before we elected to use this document in lieu of an Advanced Health Care Directive. I found all the Patients Rights Council reasoning to be sound and prudent for pro-life people, but also for others who would like to carefully select someone who has his interests in mind in his hour of need. Why leave such important decisions to a physician who has never met you or to a family member who may place his own interests at the forefront of the decision-making? How much better to select someone who loves you and who can be counted upon to make decisions in accordance with the principles you directly share with him.
There is no fee for the PMDD, but they request a donation of $10. It is $10 well-spent.
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