You will likely have heard about living wills somewhere recently. Other terms are “health-care directive” or “personal directive.”
This is the document that states your wishes for treatment if you need health-care decisions made and are unable to make them yourself.
In most provinces, there is legislation stating who has authority to make health care decisions if a person is unable to make their own.
In Saskatchewan, it is called the Health-Care Directives and Substitute Health-Care Decision Makers Act. That authority goes to the spouse, if any, and if not, to adult children, and so on down the line of relatives so that your nearest relatives would have that general authority.
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But if you want to give specific directions on what you want done for you, and you want to pick who will be responsible for seeing those directions are followed, you should consider making a living will.
A living will usually applies to a situation of severe terminal illness resulting from the natural progression of age, a stroke, other debilitating illness or an accident.
Often it will state that if one of those things leads to the person being unable to live without the aid of artificial means and unable to communicate their own health-care wishes, they want certain things to happen, or not happen.
In most living wills, they will ask not to be resuscitated. They may ask that only palliative care be given with medication, oxygen, and intravenous fluids administered for the person’s comfort only, not in some heroic effort to keep them alive.
They may request that no respirator or other means be used to keep them alive. Some wills even request they not be tube-fed simply to sustain their life.
The living will names a relative or friend to communicate and carry out the person’s wishes. Some contain directions that if the person’s wishes are not followed, and medical staff continues to take procedures the person did not want, a court order can be obtained to force such procedures to be stopped.
When you make a living will, it is im-portant to let the right people know you have done so.
If you have a family doctor, give one to him or her. If you live in assisted living or in a nursing home, make sure the administration is aware of it, and you may wish to give them a copy. And be sure the person you have named to carry out your wishes has a copy. Tell your family so they know these are your wishes.
Sometimes it is hard for families to follow these instructions when the death of their loved one is near.
