Healthcare Directives
Alabama Estate Planning Attorney

When it comes to planning ahead, creating a health care directive can be very beneficial. Why?

These tools allow you to clearly explain the medical care you would like to receive or avoid, in the case of an emergency or in the event you lose capacity to make decisions for yourself. Health care directives give you the power to a select an individual to make sure your wishes are carried out. For example, if you became incapacitated and could no longer communicate or make decisions regarding your health care, you would need someone to make those choices for you. Instead of leaving loved ones or doctors without any direction, using a living will and health care directive give you and your loved one peace of mind.

At Eastwood Estate and Probate Law, we have insight and experience when it comes to estate planning matters. We can help you create a living will and health care directive that will make your future medical decisions easier on you and the people you care about most. From guardianship to wills and trusts, we help clients make estate planning decisions that provide them peace of mind.

How do health care directives work?

When you create an estate plan, you can address much more than just finances and assets. You can also use an estate plan to lay out health care wishes. Health care directives (also known as living wills) are used to select a person, such as a trusted friend or loved one, to carry out your medical preferences. In order to do this, you must specifically create a health care directive document that names the trusted individual of your choice. Second, you will want to create a living will, which will include your specific medical wishes and preferences. These may include issues such as the following:
  • Surgical procedures
  • Blood transfusions
  • CPR
  • Any other life prolonging treatments

We find our clients initially put off this decision-making, but once they follow-through and make these medical choices, they realize the act of making the choices is much less emotionally difficult than the never-ending cycle of thinking about, worrying over, and delaying estate planning.

It is important to take legal steps to protect your wishes, even in the event of incapacity. If you do not want unnecessary treatment or procedures performed on you, it would be helpful to include that information in a health care directive. You want to make sure you select a person in your health care directive whom you trust to faithfully carry out your wishes. That person and your doctor will be legal obligated to do so and may face consequences if they do not.

Contact an Alabama healthcare directive lawyer from Eastwood Estate and Probate Law for information about health care directives. Our telephone number is 205-319-9995, and we would be glad to speak with you about our legal services.