Advance Directives
If I opt for a Living Will over a Medical POA, will my children be relieved not to have to make the hard decisions, or want to be able to make EOL decisions?
You are smart to think ahead about how your care will be handled if you can’t make decisions for yourself. We don’t know your children so we can’t say how they will feel about making decisions for you in your time of need. They probably can’t even say how they will feel about making those type of decisions at a difficult time.
We suggest that you have both a Living Will and a Medical Power of Attorney. There may be decisions to be made about your medical care that aren’t covered under a Living Will and would require a POA so that your children can make the decisions. This will be the case if you have a health crisis that is not life-threatening but puts you in a situation where you can’t make decisions or speak for yourself.
Please note though; we are not attorneys so we can’t offer legal advice. To be on the safe side, you might want to talk with a lawyer. He or she can explain the specific differences between the two types of documents and provide a recommendation on what’s best for your particular situation.
Even if you have all the paperwork in place, you should talk with your children to make sure they know exactly how you want your end-of-life care handled. Knowing what you want will make it much easier for them and will take a load off of their minds and yours.
We hope this is helpful.
