What is a Living Will?
The living will is an advance directive that an individual can execute to state their wishes regarding whether they wish to continue receiving life sustaining medical procedures or continued nourishment or hydration, during a period of time when their health condition is terminal. This usually means that the individual has a health condition from which they are unlikely to recover. Frequently, the living will is used for those patients with one of the many types of cancer. The living will is a form that is created in each state and its terms are usually defined by statutes. Before executing a living will insure that it complies with the law in your state. Although the forms are usually state specific, a form executed in one state pursuant to that states statutes is frequently satisfactory in other states to insure that the declarant’s wishes are fulfilled.In some states, in addition to having a terminal condition the living will is to be used when the individual has been in a comatose
A living will is a document that tells physicians or other healthcare providers whether or not you want life-sustaining treatments or procedures administered to you if you are in a terminal condition or an irreversible condition. It is called a living will because it takes effect while you are still living.
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.
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