Advance Directive Law: Fill & Download for Free

I don’t ask a doctor their religious or political affiliation when I go to see them. The only things I ask are the following:1) Do you agree that a doctor/patient relationship is a partnership? The doctor knowing the medicine, and the patient knowing their body and how it reacts.2) Will you respect my religious beliefs and wishes, even if they conflict with your own?3) Will you be, at all times, open and honest with me? Never leaving out treatment options or glossing over the seriousness of a health issue due to your beliefs?If that’s all good, then we’re probably going to get along well. I don’t go to my doctor to get preached to. I also don’t go to my doctor to get half-truths, or to have them omit treatment options because it goes against their religious or political beliefs.Finally, I made a Living Will via Compassionate Choices - A Federal Attack on D.C.’s Medical Aid-in-Dying Law Threatens All Such Laws]Included in that Living Will are such things as a “Letter to my Doctor” that states the following:“It is important to me to have excellent and compassionate care - to stay as healthy and active as possible over the course of my life. At the end of life, my personal values and beliefs lead me to want treatment to alleviate suffering. Most importantly, I want to ensure that if death becomes inevitable and imminent, the experience can be peaceful for me and my family.If there are measures available that may extend my life, I would like to know their chance of success, and their impact on the quality of my life. If I choose not to take those measures, I ask for your continued support.If my medical condition becomes incurable, and death the only predictable outcome, I would prefer not to suffer, but rather to die in a humane and dignified manner. I would like your reassurance that: If I am able to speak for myself, my wishes will be honored. If not, the requests from my health care representative and advance directives will be honored.You will make a referral to hospice as soon as I am eligible, should I request it.You will support me with all options for a gentle death, including providing medications that I can self-administer to help my death be as peaceful as possible.I am not requesting that you do anything unethical while I am in your care, but I hope for your reassurance that you would support my personal end-of-life care choices as listed above.I hope you will accept this statement as a fully considered decision, and an expression of my deeply-held views. If you feel you would not be able to honor such requests, please let me know now, while I am able to make choices about my care based on that knowledge. “It also has a section regarding religious and other such institutions/hospitals:“ I understand that circumstances beyond my control may cause me to be admitted to a healthcare institution whose policy is to decline to follow Advance Directive instructions that conflict with certain religious or moral teaching.If I am an inpatient in such a religious-affiliated healthcare institution when this Advance Directive comes into effect, I direct that my consent to admission shall not constitute implied consent to procedures or courses of treatment mandated by ethical, religious or other policies of the institution, if those procedures or courses of treatment conflict with this Advance Directive.Furthermore, I direct that if the healthcare institution in which I am a patient declines to follow my wishes as set out in this Advance Directive, I am to be transferred in a timely manner to a hospital, nursing home, or other institution which will agree to honor the instructions set forth in this Advance Directive.I hereby incorporate this provision into my durable power of attorney for health care, living will, and any other previously executed advance directive for health care decisions.”As you can see, I take my healthcare options very seriously. They are mine to make, and I should be free to make them. I do not want my doctor to violate their own ethics (or the law), but if their ethical stance prevents them from following my wishes, then they need to transfer my care to someone who will be able to better follow my wishes, if possible and legal.A doctor-patient relationship is a partnership. I must do my part, as a patient, to listen to my doctor and follow their instructions to the best of my ability. By that same token, the doctor must listen to me and to how I report my symptoms and side-effects, and my limitations with regard to what I can and cannot do. I will not have a doctor that tells me that it is “My way or the highway”. If that is my choice, I will find a different doctor (unless there is a VERY good reason for that position - such as I will die without following their specific instructions).

I will attempt to sincerely answer this question in two parts. In the United States, the Advance Directive most Jehovah’s Witnesses carries has a limited intent. That intent is to direct all medical professionals to respect our legal right to not have whole blood infused into our bodies if we become unable to make decisions.1. ADVANCE DIRECTIVEAn advance directive is a health care document by which a person makes provision for health care decisions in the event that, in the future, he/she becomes unable to make those decisions. This is a Legal health care document, and it is our personal choice. In case of unconsciousness the two individuals named on the document are then able to act as representatives in enforcing the document wishes. However they have no legal standing to go outside the documents wishes.Advance directive laws give doctors and others immunity if they follow your valid advance directive. This is the “carrot” the law provides to them. The only reliable strategy is to discuss your values and wishes with your health care providers ahead of time, to make sure they are clear about what you want, are willing to support your wishes, and they document your wishes.However it should be noted that Advance directives are legally recognized documents and doctors must respect your known wishes, but doctors can always refuse to comply with your wishes if they have an objection of conscience or consider your wishes medically inappropriate. Then, they have an obligation to help transfer you to another health care provider who will comply.2. CONSERVATORSHIPThe court-appointed conservator over the person is now responsible for managing the conservatee's placement, medical decisions, and mental health treatment. A court order can force someone to be placed in a nursing home.A conservatorship is very different than a Medical Directive.Generally, the person you choose to witness a document should be a disinterested party, or have no other interest in an agreement. Which in many cases excludes close family members.This is a very simplistic answer to this question. For a more complex answer see your attorney.

Sort of.I was a student at the time, so I was not the one making medical decisions, only a member of a team. And that was long enough ago that we were still working out a lot of the legal case law about end of life decisions.There was a patient with end stage kidney disease. He was tired of dialysis. He wanted to stop, though he knew he would die without it. So, his dialysis was stopped. He slipped into unconsiousnous.His family stepped in. As the patient was no longer able to make medical decisions on his own, they were legally entitled to. And they did not want him to die. The patient also supported them with his pension, which may have colored the moral decision making. We objected, because of the patient’s wishes. But he did not have a “living will”, the state sanctioned document for making this advanced directive. So, legally, the family was able to decide. The lawyers agreed. The patient was put back on dialysis. He recovered.A few weeks later, he again asked for dialysis to stop. He again did not prepare a living will (I am not clear why he did not. I believe his family pressured him not to). Rinse repeat.I was not on the service when this finally was resolved and the patient was allowed to remain off dialysis as per his wishes.