Advance Health Care Directives
The Advance Health Care Directive is probably the most important, but often the most neglected component of your estate plan. Your will and trust will govern only your belongings after your death. The Advance Health Care Directive controls your physical person during your life and governs what you will feel and even when your life will end.
Regardless of your feelings about it, Terri Schiavo’s case highlighted the critical importance of an Advance Health Care Directive. If Mrs. Schaivo had one, her case would never have seen the back page of the local paper, let alone the Halls of Congress and the desk of the President.
Because Advance Health Care Directives are so neglected, many common forms do not regularly address the nuances of medical care and moral ethics that surround medical and end of life choices. They often present a false dichotomy: either end your life immediately or spare no cost at prolonging life as long as possible. Most people find their wishes somewhere in between.
Among other things, most people, even in a terminal or vegetative state would want basic hydration, nutrition, and pain relief provided. Since the medical profession sees such care as extraordinary, signing one of the more common Advance Health Care Directive forms would actually be interpreted as a request that hydration, nutrition, and pain relief be withheld.
Mr. Alvarez has developed an exhaustive questionnaire and Advance Health Care Directive that addresses many of the nuances of medical treatments and moral decisions. This questionnaire provides choices in which most people, including Catholic and Protestant Christians, Jews and Muslims, will find the options that capture their wishes and beliefs.
