Advance Healthcare Directive
I care a lot about this.
I frequently and awkwardly spread information to educate and encourage people to take care of this one small element of planning for uncertainty.
Do you have an Advance Healthcare Directive?
How nice!. Someone drew it all out! An advance directive exists somewhere between "oh shit", "you lived", and "you died". Read on to find out more!
An Advance Healthcare Directive is a simple legal form that does three(ish) important things in the event of specific medical circumstances.
1. If medical intervention is the only thing keeping you alive, it documents your wishes regarding continued care.
2. If medical intervention is needed but it's not covered under point #1, it designates an agent to make choices on your behalf.
3. It documents your donation preferences if you find yourself in a situation in which you're no longer using your organs.
Care for care
The people who would rush to your hospital bed in the event of an accident are probably the same people who would have been by your side for a long struggle with a chronic illness.
Even if you're incapacitated, you can still actively care for them by offering preemptive guidance.
With an Advance Directive, you provision your authority to reduce uncertainty.
Choices made against your wishes
Hospitals are obligated to follow the path that is swiftest, safest, and has the least legal resistance. Given this, life ending and life altering choices may be made by a person you did not and would not chose to direct these decisions. For example, "next of kin" may lead to a family member from whom you are estranged.
Often, prolonged care is accompanied by unconsciousness. Unable to communicate your wishes on matters like "pulling the plug", there is a 50/50 chance you'll end up on the undesired side of a persistent, vegetative state.
An Advance Directive aligns medical choices with personal preferences.
Clarity in chaos
Because you have established and documented categorical choices, your agent can make confident, nuanced choices in line with what you would have wanted.