New Health
Care Advance Directive Form
Bob Mason
Originally
published in Coastal Senior
(July 2007)
Georgians are getting a new
Health Care Advance
Directive form. I’ll explain
more about that here. Read
on.
Estate planning, including
preparation of appropriate
wills and trusts, is an
important process. It saves
money and assets. It insures
that whatever property you
have accumulated is
distributed to those you
wish (together with many of
the strings you may want to
attach). Often, however, a
client of mine will become
incredulous when I urge her
to carefully consider health
care advance directives.
“They’re forms!” or “Just
fill it out . . . I don’t
want anything done if I’m
dying!”
I explain that her carefully
considered will or trust has
everything to do with money
and nothing to do with
whether she lives or dies,
or nothing to do with how
she might die. Health care
advance directives, on the
other hand, have everything
to do with those life and
death issues. Usually I have
my client’s attention at
this point.
Governor Perdue recently
signed into law the new
Georgia Advance Directive
for Health Care Act, which
will become effective July
1. I have begun using them
immediately.
The forms are a badly needed
improvement over the older
forms. The old Health Care
Power of Attorney form and
the Living Will form will
continue to be effective if
executed before July 1.
Nevertheless, the new forms
are better enough that many
will want to execute the new
form. In fact, the new
Georgia form is one of the
best of the many I’ve seen.
You can download the new
“Georgia Advance Directive
for Health Care” form from
my website (go to
www.masonlawpc.com, click on
the Georgia flag, click on
“Downloads”, and download
the form). There are likely
many other sites running the
form.
Soon to be ‘history’ will be
the current “Durable Power
of Attorney for Health Care”
and the “Living Will”.
Georgia law had treated the
two documents separately
because two different
objectives were being
pursued. The power of
attorney form allowed an
individual to name another
person (or persons) to make
health care decisions on
behalf of the individual if
he or she became
incapacitated. On the other
hand, a living will allowed
the same individual to make
certain elections with
regard to treatment (or
withholding treatment) in
the event of a number of
serious or end-of-life
conditions.
The two forms have been
combined into an easily
understandable form. The
directions are clear and
appear on the front of the
form. Four parts of the form
allow for the selection of
an agent (I suggest naming a
successor or two),
specification of treatment
options, free-style
description of any important
personal considerations,
nomination of a future
guardian if the need should
ever arise, and the ability
to limit the effective
duration of the power.
The form is flexible enough
to allow anyone with strong
preferences to state them,
yet the design of the form
is such that the “default
setting” is toward a
pro-life orientation. I have
been involved in advance
directive re-write efforts
in North Carolina, and the
Georgia effort would avoid
many of the political
objections raised in North
Carolina.
It’s a good form that had
plenty of input from the
medical, legal, academic and
religious communities.
Because of the very broad
input, the form can be
tailored to the religious,
ethical, and emotional
preferences of anyone. Hats
off to the people who worked
very hard on this effort.
In any case, the worst
possible thing you can do is
nothing. In nearly every
case that makes the news and
involves the courts (and
LAWYERS!) there is a patient
who is likely in a
vegetative state who did not
execute any sort of advance
directive. The Terri
Schindler-Schiavo case in
Florida is one sad example
of what can happen by doing
nothing.
Speaking of Teri Schindler-Schiavo:
Advance Directives are for
everyone. Younger folks
often don’t give a passing
thought to advance
directives. But if you think
about it, younger people
(especially young women) are
the ones who make the news
(and the courts) when they
don’t have advance
directives and later wind up
in a coma after some
terrible accident. Quinlan,
Cruzan, and Schiavo are all
now-famous names that
belonged to young women.
The best you can do is talk
to your family about your
preferences. Many clients
tell me talking to their
children about end of life
care is tougher than ‘the
other big talk’ they had 30
or 40 years ago involving
birds and bees.
Be brave. Have the talk.
Then have the proper
documents prepared.
Bob Mason, certified elder
law attorney by the National
Elder Law Foundation,
practices in Savannah,
Georgia, and Asheboro, North
Carolina. Email Bob at ram@masonlawpc.com
or visit www.masonlawpc.com.
