Advance healthcare directive

Advance healthcare directive

An Advance healthcare directive (pronounced: ad-vans helth-kair dih-rek-tiv), also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, or advance decision, is a legal document in which a person specifies what actions should be taken for their health if they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves because of illness or incapacity. The term "Advance directive" is itself relatively new, but the concept dates back to at least the 1970s.

Etymology

The term "Advance healthcare directive" is derived from the words "advance" (meaning beforehand), "healthcare" (referring to the maintenance and improvement of physical and mental health, primarily through the provision of medical services), and "directive" (an official or authoritative instruction).

Types of Advance healthcare directives

There are generally two types of advance healthcare directives: Living wills and Durable power of attorney for health care (also known as healthcare proxy).

• Living will - A living will is a written, legal document that spells out medical treatments a person would and would not want to be used to keep them alive, as well as other decisions such as pain management or organ donation.

• Durable power of attorney for health care - This is a legal document that names a healthcare proxy, who is someone a person trusts to make health decisions if they are unable to do so.

Related terms

• Healthcare proxy - A person appointed to make healthcare decisions for someone else if they are unable to do so.
• Do not resuscitate - An order to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), in respect of the wishes of a patient in case their heart were to stop or they were to stop breathing.
• Organ donation - The process of giving an organ or a part of an organ for the purpose of transplantation into another person.

See also

• Patient autonomy
• Medical ethics
• End-of-life care

External links

• Medical encyclopedia article on Advance healthcare directive
• Wikipedia's article - Advance healthcare directive

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