Walk It Through: The Hospital Decision
A living will signed before the right witnesses, a proxy who accepts, and a family deciding without one.
A healthy adult decides to write a living will and asks a sister and a neighbor to witness it.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
Decisions about life-sustaining treatment. Ordinary medical decisions, a power of attorney for money, and minors are left out.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Health care proxyA competent adult named in a living will to decide on life-sustaining treatment and artificial nutrition and hydration, who accepts the appointment in writing.
- SurrogateThe person who decides on life-sustaining treatment with the physician when there is no directive, in order: guardian, spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling, then next of kin.