Here at Bennet Guthrie PLLC, one of our areas of expertise is estate law. When most people think about estate law, they think about last wills and testaments, the documents which dictate how to divide up someone’s property after they pass. Our team can certainly help you make a last will and testament, but we’d also like to stress the importance of creating a living will.
A living will does not relate to property or inheritance, but instead provides instructions about your medical care. If you get sick or hurt and become unable to make decisions for yourself, your care team will follow the directives set forth in your living will. In this article, we’ll go over a few key reasons why we encourage every adult to make a living will.
- Get the Care You Want – There are two ways to look at a living will. You can think about how it helps you and about how it helps your loved ones. A living will can help you by ensuring you get the exact care you want during medical emergencies and at the end of your life. For example, you might want your doctors to try everything possible to save your life, including CPR, artificial nutrition and hydration, and ventilation. On the other hand, you might not want to prolong your life past a certain point. In your living will, you can state what measures doctors should take to save your life, and under what circumstances they should stop treatment.
- Take the Burden of Decision Off Your Loved Ones – A living will can spare your loved ones from unnecessary pain. Having to make medical decisions for a loved one who has become incapacitated is agonizing, and it’s easy to lose yourself in doubt and guilt in the process. If you don’t want your partner, adult child, or other loved ones to have to make these excruciating decisions for you, you should make a living will. A living will also helps prevent arguments among your surviving family members, since no one will be able to claim you wanted different care.