Complete Your Living Will

Your living will documents the medical treatments you would or would not want if you're unable to make or communicate healthcare decisions for yourself and are facing certain serious medical situations.

These decisions are personal. There isn't one right answer. Your choices should reflect the values, beliefs, and priorities you thought about earlier when considering your preferences.

What Does a Living Will Cover?

Your living will helps you make decisions about treatments that may be used to keep you alive, including:

CPR – Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure used when your heart stops beating or you stop breathing.
Life-support treatments – Medical treatments that support or replace essential body functions, such as a ventilator to help you breathe or artificial nutrition and hydration.

Your MyDirectives Advance Directive will guide you through these choices and explain when they may apply.

Think About the Outcomes, Not Just the Treatments

It can be difficult to decide whether you would want a particular medical treatment without knowing the circumstances. Instead, think about the outcome that treatment might make possible.

For example:

Would you want treatment if there was a good chance you could recover and return to the activities that matter to you?
Would your decision be different if doctors believed you were unlikely to recover?
If treatment could keep you alive but not improve your condition, would you want it?
Would there be a time when care focused on comfort becomes more important to you than treatments intended to keep you alive longer?

The values you identified earlier can help guide these decisions.

Think About the Outcomes - Not Just the Treatments

Talk With Your Healthcare Agent and Loved Ones

You don't have to make these decisions alone. Talk with your healthcare agent and loved ones about the choices you're considering and, just as importantly, why you're making them. Understanding the values behind your decisions can help your healthcare agent communicate for you if a situation arises that isn't specifically addressed in your living will.

If you have questions about a treatment or how a medical condition could affect your choices, talk with your healthcare provider before completing your living will.

Document Your Living Will Decisions with myDirectives

Document Your Decisions

Once you've thought about the care you would want, you're ready to document your decisions in your MyDirectives Advance Directive.

Remember, the choices you make today aren't set in stone. You can review and update your living will if your health, circumstances, or decisions change.

With your healthcare agent selected and your future end-of-life treatment preferences documented, you have the elements of an advance directive. The next step is making sure your completed advance directive is available to the people who may need it, such as healthcare providers, family, loved ones, and caregivers.

Continue to: Share Your Decisions

Ready to make your healthcare decisions known?

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Create an advance directive or securely store and manage advance care planning documents you already have.

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