Living Will
This is also known as the will to live. In legal terms, a living will constitutes an advance health [care] directive - in other words, the writer of the living will is making his/her wishes known regarding medical
treatment ahead of time, in case s/he becomes incapacitated or incompetent to make decisions.
Included with the living will is some kind of power of attorney or a health care proxy. As you may be aware, a proxy allows an attorney or other person to act as an agent with the power to represent the interests and desires of a principal (an individual, group or legal entity such as a company or corporation). Under a health care proxy, the agent - who can be any individual of legal age and of sound mind - becomes responsible for the principal's health care decisions once a physician determined h/she is no longer competent to do so.
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In this case, the agent is limited to only those actions specified on the health care proxy form.
The importance of having a health care proxy and a living will in place was made tragically clear to people in the U.S. a few years ago in the case of Terri Schiavo. In 1990, Ms. Schiavo had suffered cardiac and respiratory failure. This ultimately caused irrecoverable brain damage, leaving her in what doctor term as a persistent vegetative state (PVS). For seven years, her husband and parents fought a legal battle over whether or not to terminate life support. Had Ms. Schiavo made a living will and health care proxy, the litigation - which eventually cost both sides hundreds of thousands of dollars and ultimately involved the state governor's office and the U.S. Congress - the situation might have been avoided.
A living will specifies which treatments are to be given or withheld by caregivers should the principal be incapacitated or otherwise unable to communicate individual health care instructions, i.e., give informed consent.