Advanced Directives Honor Your Wishes

“Advanced Directives” are legal documents that help medical professionals and families honor your wishes during a health crisis when you cannot speak for yourself.  There are two types of Advanced Directives in Ohio:  The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and the Living Will.  Before either document can be used, two physicians must determine that you have lost the capacity to make health care decisions for yourself.

The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care document allows you to name an individual to provide consent or refusal for any type of health care.  The Living Will document allows you to state in advance your desire to receive or withhold life support procedures if you are permanently unconscious or terminally ill and unable to make informed decisions.  Regardless of which choice you make, the Ohio Living Will statute requires that comfort measures must be provided. 

Anyone over the age of eighteen (18) years who is of sound mind can complete Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Living Will documents.  The documents must be witnessed by two adults or can be notarized. 

Advanced Directives spare your loved ones the burden of guessing your wishes and allows physicians to honor your requests.  The use of Advanced Directives together with your other estate planning documents provides a complete benefit plan. 

For more information on Advanced Directives and Estate Planning, contact Lisa M. Bitter, Esq., at Benjamin, Yocum & Heather LLP, 300 Pike Street, Suite 500, Cincinnati, OH 45202, (513) 721-5672, lmbitter@byhlaw.com.