Advance Directive Living Will: 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).

Simple DeathNo breathing, pulse not palpable, dilated pupils, not reacting to light – these are the 3 cardinal signs that we check before we declare that everything is over. It used to be that simple. But not anymore.But now, times have changed.‘Complex’ deathToday a patient on pacemaker, the heart continues to beat, on ventilator the breathing continues.In addition, ionotropic drugs make the heart muscle work harder, antibiotics ward off microbes to prevent infections, air-beds delay bed sores, dialysis stand-by if kidneys fail; making dying even more difficult, not just for the patient or their families, but for the doctor as well.So checking for breathing, and pulse for heart beat became pointless for such patients.That’s when we try to see if there is evidence of brain death. Tests like an EEG, caloric tests and dolls eye test tells us if the brain has some leftover function or not. Once brain death is confirmed, then we try to think if there is a chance and background of organ donation and if the family is likely to consider it. Most of us know our regular patient’s family very well. Once brain death is confirmed, the family is apprised and life support is weaned off (if organ donation is not planned).For most people, who die as result of a progressive natural illness, the doctor decides (in consultation with the family) not to put the patient on life-support system; after signing a legal document called DNR (Do not resuscitate).One way of avoiding ‘Complex’ death is to give an advance directive (AD) confirming that you yourself want not to be resuscitated (DNR).In many cases it would save your money and our time.I have given advanced directive for DNR myself, not that I wish to die, but I refuse to live connected to tubes and wires with aliens in green masks waiting for the ECG blip to stop.

I recently faced a similar situation with my father... as the EMTs were rolling him to the ambulance, they asked, "if he codes on the ride to the hospital, does he want to be resuscitated?" I didn't know his answer, so I said yes, resuscitate him. When they asked him the question, his answer was "definitely not -- no CPR, and no tubes."The lesson I took away was the importance of having conversations about this in advance, and documenting them via a living will, advance directive and / or DNR order. If you haven't had this discussion with your patents, do so!To answer your question more directly, if I knew the person's wishes, I would definitely honor them. I have no right to put my personal discomfort ahead of their wishes.