Life Choices
COMMUNICATING ABOUT END OF LIFE
Life Choices: Page 7 of 36
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Advance Directives: Living wills
Health care choices directive | Living wills
Living wills
By creating a living will, you instruct health care providers to withhold or withdraw medical treatment under certain circumstances. Missouri law authorizes the creation of living wills that use a statement or declaration in this form:
"I have the primary right to make my own decisions concerning treatment that might unduly prolong the dying process. By this declaration I express to my physician, family and friends my intent. If I should have a terminal condition it is my desire that my dying not be prolonged by administration of death-prolonging procedures. If my condition is terminal and I am unable to participate in decisions regarding my medical treatment, I direct my attending physician to withhold or withdraw medical procedures that merely prolong the dying process and are not necessary to my comfort or to alleviate pain. It is not my intent to authorize affirmative or deliberate acts or omissions to shorten my life, rather only to permit the natural process of dying."
To create a living will, you must be 18 or older and have two witnesses who also are at least 18 years old. You and your two witnesses must sign the living will. The witnesses cannot be family members, beneficiaries to your estate or financially responsible for your medical care.
Living wills do have limitations. They apply only to near death situations in which the patient will die shortly without medical intervention. Missouri law prohibits a living will from being used to withhold or withdraw artificially supplied nutrition and hydration. To give instructions beyond what a living will allows, complete a health care choices directive.
Once you complete a living will, make sure to give copies to your doctors, family members and the person you have chosen as your power of attorney for health care. If you decide you want to cancel your living will, you can do so either verbally or in writing. Health care providers are required to note a revocation of a living will in your medical record.
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