While many associate estate-planning with wills and dealing with the affairs of the deceased, there is much more to it than that. A living will is used to deal with the healthcare-related affairs of a person who is no longer able to make decisions themselves. Read on to find out more about living wills.

Directing Your Healthcare Choices

While a last will and testament directs what will happen with your estate after your death, a living will applies to your healthcare needs before your death. These estate instruments only begin to be effective if you are unable to make your needs known. That means you cannot communicate your wishes due to being unconscious for the following reasons:

  • Medical conditions that result in coma and are expected to result in eventual death.
  • Illnesses that are usually terminal.
  • Injuries that usually result in death.

What to Include in a Living Will

These tools allow patients to designate ahead of time what they want when it comes to end-of-life situations and how much medical intervention is desired when the heartbeat stops. You might want to be medically resuscitated or you might not, for example. Most living wills also cover issues like tube-feeding, dealing with pain, organ donation, and using a ventilator.

Those Without a Living Will

If you have no living will, you should understand what medical facilities and doctors must do by law. In most cases, you must be kept alive by any means possible depending on brain activity and other parameters. When there is a decision to be made, you will be leaving it up to your next of kin to decide on the level of life support to provide for you. Most people don't want to place that kind of burden on their loved ones, however. With a living will, there's no need for loved ones to feel confused about their decisions at a time when they are already dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Consider an Advanced Directive

To make your living will arrangements complete, consider adding another important estate-planning tool, an advanced directive. While a living will sets out your wishes when incapacitation might lead to death, an advanced directive has more broad uses. With an advanced directive, a person is appointed to make healthcare decisions for you if you should become incapacitated, whether your condition is expected to result in death or not.

For more information about these two estate solutions, speak to your estate-planning lawyer right away.

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