Making Sure Your Medical Treatment Wishes are Carried Out

The following information explains your rights to make health care decisions and how you can plan what should be done when you cannot speak for yourself.

Kinds of Advance Directives
Making Decisions About My Medical Treatment
State Views on Advance Directive Types
Treatment Iimpacts of Not having an Advance Directive
Selecting A Decision-Maker For A Durable Power of Attorney
How to Handle an Advance Directive
Obtaining an Advance Directive Form

Kinds of Advance Directives

There are two types of advance directives:

1. Living Will: A living will indicates what type of medical treatment you do or do not want in the future.
2. Power of Attorney: A durable power of attorney for health care indicates whom you have selected to make decisions about your medical treatment if you are unable to make them for yourself in the future.

Both the living will and durable power of attorney for health care offer evidence of your treatment preferences, whether used together or individually.

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Making Decisions About My Medical Treatment

You have the power to decide to accept or refuse any kind of treatment. This is a very personal decision that you must make by weighing the benefits of the treatment against its burdens such as: Will the treatment help me live longer? What pain and suffering will the treatment cause? What will be my quality of life?

Your physician must tell you about your medical condition and what different treatments can do for you. Many treatments have "side effects." Your physician must offer you information about serious problems that medical treatment is likely to cause you. Often, more than one treatment might help you, and people have different ideas about which is best. Your physician can tell you which treatments are available to you, but your physician can't choose for you. That choice depends on what is important to you.

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State Views on Advance Directive Types

States differ in their recognition of these documents. Michigan has passed a law supporting the durable power of attorney for health care. While it has not passed legislation recognizing the living will, there is a place in the durable power of attorney form to indicate how you want to be cared for.

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Treatment Iimpacts of Not having an Advance Directive

You do not need to write an advance directive to ensure you receive medical treatment. If you go to the hospital or nursing home, the providers will ask if you have a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care. You will not be denied medical treatment if you do not have an advance directive.

If you become seriously ill or injured, lose your decision-making capability and don't have an advance directive, your family or friends can make decisions about your treatment based on what they believe your wishes to be.

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Selecting A Decision-Maker For A Durable Power of Attorney

The best person to make medical treatment decisions on your behalf is someone who knows you well. When you designate your durable power of attorney, choose someone with whom you feel comfortable sharing your treatment views and who you trust to carry out your wishes. Above all, talk frankly with your representative to give them as much information as possible about the types of medical treatment you wish to avoid.

In cases where you don't have anybody to make decisions for you, a "living will" is suitable because it takes effect while you are still alive but have become unable to speak for yourself. Anyone 18 years or older and of sound mind can sign one.

When you sign a living will, it tells your physicians that you don't want any treatment that would only prolong your dying. All life-sustaining treatment would be s[Top]ped if you were terminally ill and death was expected soon or if you were permanently unconscious. You would still receive treatment to keep you comfortable. The physician must follow your wishes about limiting treatment or turn your care over to another physician who will. Your physician is also legally protected when he or she follows your wishes.

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How to Handle an Advance Directive

Once you have completed the advance directive, you should:

1. Give a copy to your doctor and to the person you designate as your durable power of attorney
2. Make sure your family knows you have an advance directive and where you keep it; you might want to share with them what you have written
3. Take your advance directive with you if you go to a hospital or a nursing home.

You may change or revoke your advance directive at any time.

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Obtaining an Advance Directive Form

To obtain an advance directive form, or if you have questions, please call our Customer Service Department.

If you don't wish to fill out any of the advance directive forms, you can just talk with your physician and ask him or her to write down what you've said in your medical chart. You can also talk with your family. Please keep in mind that people will be more clear about your treatment wishes if you write them down, and your wishes are more likely to be followed.

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