Walk It Through: When Mother Cannot Decide
A power of attorney, a health care agent, a declaration, and a guardianship as the last step.
An aging parent wants an adult child to handle the bills if she cannot.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One family's planning. Conservatorships for property, emergency guardianships, contested capacity and the statutory forms themselves are not worked through here.
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.
- AgentThe person a power of attorney authorizes to act for the principal, who acts in good faith, within the authority granted, loyally and in the principal's best interest, and keeps a record of every transaction.
- DurableNot ended by the principal's incapacity. A power of attorney made under the act is durable unless it expressly provides that incapacity ends it.
- Health care power of attorneyA document substantially in the statutory form, signed by the principal and two qualified witnesses, naming an agent eighteen years of age or older to make health care decisions.
- Clear and convincing evidenceThe standard of proof the court must have before appointing a guardian, higher than the ordinary civil standard.
- GuardianA person the court appoints, on clear and convincing evidence that someone is incapacitated, to provide continuing care and supervision, with orders only to the extent the incapacity requires.
- Limited guardianshipA guardianship whose powers the court has limited, with the limitation endorsed on the guardian's letters.
- MinorA person under the age of eighteen, which is what every reference to minors in the state's laws means, except in the laws on selling alcoholic beverages.
- DeclarationA document expressing a desire that no life sustaining procedures be used to prolong dying if the person's condition is terminal or they are permanently unconscious, signed before an officer authorized to administer oaths and two qualified witnesses.
- Permanent unconsciousnessA condition two physicians may certify for a declaration to take effect, ordinarily after the person has been unconscious for at least ninety consecutive days.