Advance Directives
When you are no longer able to make your own decisions.
4/11/2011 DeVry University Health Rights and Responsibilities SPRA11 Sec11 Professor: Deyrl Gulliford Karen Anyalebechi

What kind of medical care would you want if you were too ill or hurt to express your wishes? Advance directives are legal documents that allow you to convey your decisions about end-of-life care ahead of time. They provide ways for you to communicate you’re wishes to family, friends, and healthcare professionals to avoid confusion later on. Advance directives centers around the principle of your right to die and death with dignity. With an advance directive, you can express how much or how little you want done for you when you are no longer able to make decisions. (Advance Directives) Legal documents can ease end-of-life decisions. Congress passed the Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA), which became effective in 1991. The act requires all health-care institutions that receive Medicare or Medicaid funds to provide patients with written information about their right under state law to execute advance directives, but it does not require states to adopt or change any substantive laws. The written information must clearly state the institution’s policies on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. The PDSA also requires facilities to document in each patient’s medical record whether an advance directive has been executed, to educate staff and the public about the right to forgo treatment, and to ensure institutional compliance with state law. Violation of the act can lead to loss of federal funding. (Markus) One type of directive that patients in many states can execute designates an agent to make healthcare decisions for them if they become mentally incapacitated. The process involves drafting a durable power of attorney, which is simply a document