Advanced Directive

• An advance directive, sometimes called a living will, allows you to document your wishes concerning medical treatments at the end of your life. 

• Advance directives are legally valid throughout the United States. While you do not need a lawyer to fill out an advance directive, your advance directive becomes legally valid as soon as you sign them in front of the required witnesses.

• Emergency medical technicians cannot honor living wills or medical powers of attorney. Once emergency personnel have been called, they must do what is necessary to stabilize a person for transfer to a hospital, both from accident sites and from a home or other facility. After a physician fully evaluates the person's condition and determines the underlying conditions, advance directives can be implemented.

• Your advance directive never expires; it remains in effect until you change it. Every new advance directive invalidates the previous one. Review your advance directive periodically to ensure that it still reflects your wishes. If you want to change anything in your advance directive, create a new one.

• You should review your advance directives periodically to ensure that they still reflect your wishes. If you want to change anything in an advance directive once you have completed it, you should complete a whole new document.