We Should All Have A Living Will or Health Care Proxy

By Neil S. Siskind, Esq.               

               A Living Will is your voice when you can’t actually speak. Unfortunately, it is the type of document that people don’t take the time to prepare since no one contemplates or desires to contemplate their own incapacitation or vegetation. These are morbid thoughts. On the other hand, it is such a simple document than can be completed easily, quickly and inexpensively and can be inavaluable to you and your family. The hard part is deciding for yourself, along with your health care provider and your family, what it should say about the life-prolonging medical treatment you would want and what you would not. These are decisions you make for yourself on your own, or along with loved ones, that are to be implemented in case of severe incapacitation.               

               The Living Will document can be prepared as a lone document or along with your regular Will or Trust. A good companion for the Living Will is the Health Care Proxy. The Proxy gives power over your health care decisions to another person. The person you designate in the Proxy to make decisions on your behalf should be very familiar with your wishes and desires and even your personal ideals. Of course, it should be a person whom you completely trust.    

               Importantly, make sure the people involved in your life, family or doctors, know of the existence and location of these documents. 

              Contact The Siskind Law Firm if you would like to have a Will, Trust, Living Will, Health Care Proxy or all of the above prepared for you.