What is a Living Will

A living will is a special, although simple, document which has legal and binding authority. It is drawn up by a person to specifically detail his or her wishes and instructions which can cover specific medical procedures and treatments needed in case of adverse medical conditions. If you should become unable to speak or make decisons about various forms of medical attention and intervention, a living will could be your way of exercising control over the situation...and your life.

Your loved ones and medical providers will not have to act in the dark because you will have stated your desires in advance of the moment of truth.

There is so much information and knowledge which people should learn about a living will.

By definition, a living will, and other such legal advance directives, is a written instruction about a person’s specific medical care preferences and choices. If you create a living will, your family and your doctor will automatically consult the document in case you become unable to make decisions concerning significant medical treatments and procedures.

It is important to understand that, while the document could be drafted and prepared by you, there should be legal and a lawyer’s assistance and presence should be a part of the process to make sure that it is valid and binding.

To be sure, the living will may not quite be as important and necessary as a last will and testament, or a living trust, but more and more people nowadays are deciding to have one, especially in consideration of current high medical costs. In comparison, a last will and testament is also a legal document that is signed by the maker in the presence of a legal witness, is a document which describes how that person wishes his or her assets and wealth to be divided by family and descendants upon death.

Most people are advised to at least have a will made. In fact, many individuals, even those without great wealth are smart enough to write their will early in life and subject that testament to numerous modifications and changes as time goes on. My father died without a will, and my mother, my sister, and I had to go through a lot of legal movements to make sure my mother got what she deserved.

An alternative, the living trust is different than a living will or a last will and testament. It details distribution of the estate of a person during, and after, his or her lifetime. In a living trust, the owner of an estate designates a trustee to manage all declared assets, which would then be automatically transferred into the possession of the trustee.

In a living trust, the person or estate owner need not be dead for the assets to be turned over to other people.

Many are not aware that a person can specify in a living will their desire to have their organs removed and donated to other people who need transplants. Under the living will, the body could even be donated to a medical school that is in need of corpses for medical and scientific studies.

A living will becomes effective only when the person becomes incapacitated.

At that point, he or she will not be able to decide or say what treatments he wants or not wants. Normally, in such instances, it is the family who must deal with the burden of decision. People who want to spare their family from making such difficult task decide to pre-empt any medical decision through having a living will.

Before the living will becomes effective, there must be a certification by a doctor that the person is truly suffering from a terminal condition or that he is permanently unconscious.