What is a Living Will?
A Living Will is a legal document that expresses your intention not to be kept alive by artificial means, or by heroic measures. This document should be executed only if you feel comfortable making such a declaration. The document generally also contains the appointment of someone to make medical decisions for you if you are unable, commonly referred to as a health care power of attorney. What is a Revocable Living Trust? Do I Need One? The term “living trust” (also known as a “revocable trust” or “inter vivos trust”) is generally used to describe a trust (a) which you can create during your lifetime, and (b) which you can revoke or amend whenever you wish. Much has been written recently regarding the use of living trusts as a solution for a wide variety of problems associated with estate planning through wills. The benefits of living trusts are often greatly overstated, especially in jurisdictions (like Pennsylvania) where the probate of a will is not an expensive or complicated proce
A living will is your written expression of how you want to be treated in certain medical conditions. Depending on state law, this document may permit you to express whether or not you wish to be given life-sustaining treatments in the event you are terminally ill or injured, to decide in advance whether you wish to be provided food and water via intravenous devices (“tube feeding”), and to give other medical directions that impact the end of life. “Life-sustaining treatment” means the use of available medical machinery and techniques, such as heart-lung machines, ventilators, and other medical equipment and techniques that will sustain and possibly extend your life, but which will not by themselves cure your condition. In addition to terminal illness or injury situations, most states permit you to express your preferences as to treatment using life-sustaining equipment and/or tube feeding for medical conditions that leave you permanently unconscious and without detectable brain activi
A living will is one type of advance health care directive. In a living will, the Principal gives written instructions about the kind of life sustaining treatment that he or she wants or does not want when the Principal is not capable of making health care decisions. A living will does not ensure that the consent of the Principal is as well informed as it is with other types of advance health care directives. The living will cannot reflect advancements in medicine from the time it is executed, or know in advance all of the changing circumstances associated with a future illness. The Diocese of Manchester does not recommend that the New Hampshire Living Will be used. For more information see Three Beliefs or contact the Diocese.
