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The Living Will

A living will is a statement you write up in advance for the type of medical care you want in assorted situations if you should be incapable of telling your health care providers yourself. It also permits you to designate the person you want to make your health care choices for you so be sure to choose someone who will follow your wishes and not their own (one of my sisters thinks a hangnail is too much to suffer; my mother doesn't want her making medical choices for her).

Other terms used to refer to a "living will" include:

  • Advance care directive
  • Advance health directive
  • Advance health care directive
  • Five Wishes
  • Will to live
  • Healthcare declaration

Do your designated healthcare power-of-attorney a favor and make out an advance care directive or living will so they don't have to go through the horrid indecision and worry of having to choose for you. This is a horrible and very emotional decision to have to make for someone else. It tears you apart because you bring your own fears and desires into the decision at a time when you want to be sure that you are choosing the path the patient would want no matter what you might want.

To be effective, your living will must be:

  • Witnessed by two people who know you but do not benefit from your death nor provide you with health care
  • Be readily available for paramedics, doctors, hospitals, clinics, ANYONE who may have a need to treat you in a life-threatening situation

Some of the suggestions I received about availability while helping my friend included carrying it around with me, using a magnet to keep a copy accessible on the refrigerator, and leaving a copy with family, the designated power-of-attorney, and each regularly-seen doctor.

An even better suggestion is the U.S. Living Will Registry (Registry). Some health care providers will register your living will for you for free; at worst, you can register a living will for a one-time fee of $125—consider giving this registration as a gift for the person who has everything!

Once your living will is registered, the Registry sends you labels with your registry ID number which you can stick onto your driver’s license or health insurance card. Any health care provider can access the contents of your living will by typing in this ID number.

Once a year, the Registry sends out a letter asking if the choices you made in your living will are still valid—so be sure to add the Registry ID number and their address to your Essential Document Locator Form.

Each state has particular requirements for a living will to be legal and therefore binding on your health care providers. The Registry has a list of links to forms for each state.

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Kathy Davie is an artist, educator, and author of the arts marketing series, Your Portfolio & You, aimed at helping artists survive (and thrive) at the business of being an artist.

As a self-taught artist, Kathy was frustrated by the lack of information on taking her career to a more professional level while meeting legal guidelines and learning about legal hiccups. Her drive for information fueled her to interview numerous professionals and compiled the information into a monthly news column. She now leads workshops and is converting the news columns into this continuing series of how-to books.

Kathy has a BS in Technical Writing & Editing with minors in Digital Media and History from Metropolitan State College, Denver, CO and is the author of Accounting for the SMALL Businessperson, How Copyright Applies to the Artist, the Buyer, the Employer/e, the Sold Artwork, Dealing with Photographs, Slides, Digital Images, and Surviving the Outdoor Arts Festival.

Visit her writing or arts websites or reach her by email.