Do I Need to Appoint a Health Care Representative if I Have a Living Will?

Adults of all ages in Connecticut should have estate plans, especially particular documents like a will and advance directives. If you have not yet created an estate plan for yourself, it is important to do so, and creating advance directives should be among the first steps you take with assistance from your Connecticut estate planning lawyer. You may already know that advance directives are documents that allow you to express health care wishes in advance, in the event you cannot express those wishes yourself. Two critical types of advance directives are the appointment of a health care representative and a living will. If you have started looking into these documents, you may be wondering if you actually need both. In particular, you might wonder if a living will is sufficient to cover all health care issues in the future.

In short, you absolutely need both a living will and a document through which you appoint a health care representative. We can explain in more detail.

Living Wills Only Cover Certain Health Care Matters in Connecticut 

Under Connecticut law, different types of advance directives are intended for specific purposes. While a living will might sound like the type of document that is all-encompassing, it is actually a specific document that allows a person to request life-sustaining care (or to decline life-sustaining care) in the event that they are deemed to have a terminal condition or determined to be permanently unconscious.

To put that language in simpler terms, a living will is a document that allows you to give very specific instructions — if you have an incurable or irreversible medical condition (i.e., a terminal condition), or you are permanently unconscious — to provide or withhold life support systems. Through a living will, you can ask to be provided with or for the following to be withheld:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR);
• Artificial respiration; and/or
• Artificial nutrition or hydration.

You can also make other specific requests of your choosing, which can be designed to ensure that your dying is not prolonged.

You Still Need to Appoint a Health Care Representative if You Have a Living Will 

While a living will allows you to indicate whether or not you want certain forms of life-prolonging care in particular situations, appointing a health care representative ensures that you have someone who can make important health care decisions on your behalf — even if you are only temporarily incapacitated.

A health care representative can make decisions for you about all forms of treatment, procedures following a diagnosis, and more. Their authority to make these decisions will only kick in if your physician determines that you are incapacitated and cannot make an informed decision regarding your own care or treatment.

Contact a Canton Estate Planning Attorney 

Advance directives are an important component of any estate plan in Connecticut. As such, it is essential to seek advice about creating advance directives with an experienced Canton estate planning lawyer at the Law Office of Brian S. Karpe. You will want to appoint a health care representative and create a living will, and you may also want to consider creating a document of an anatomical gift or designating a conservator of the person in the event of future incapacity. Our firm can assist you with advance directives, along with all other aspects of estate planning in Connecticut. Contact us today to get started.

Source:

portal.ct.gov/-/media/ag/health-issues/advdirectivescombinedform2006alt-pdf.pdf?rev=1475e3fcefa446ca8d07e3160f6102ad&hash=B9F8DDDDACABFA1FE24E615C355FED2D