Advance Medical Directives are written instructions from you to your health care providers.  These documents protect your right to control your medical care.  By putting your wishes in writing ahead of time, you can maintain control of your medical care, even if you later become too ill to make decisions or to communicate with your health care providers. 

There are two distinct types of advance directives recognized by Louisiana law.  A Medical Power-of-Attorney allows you to name someone to make medical decisions for you.  In a Living Will, you give specific instructions about the type of care you are to receive if you become very sick with a terminal illness.

No.  Except in a life-threatening emergency, medical personnel cannot treat you without "informed consent."  This means that the health care provider must first explain the treatment to you, tell you of any risks, and then get your permission.  If you are unable to consent, and if there is no one legally authorized to consent for you, you may well go without treatment until the situation becomes life-threatening. 

On the other hand, if you are likely to die without treatment, your health care provider will put you on life-support and keep you alive as long as possible.  This is true even if you are in the final stages of a terminal illness and the treatment will only prolong your dying.

Life support is only withheld if you or someone legally authorized to speak for you instructs your doctor to withhold it.

Also, the decisions about what treatment is appropriate for you depends in large part on your beliefs, values and desires.  Your health care providers can tell you what treatment options are available to you, but often cannot tell you which is best for you.

This depends on your family situation.  If you become unable to make decisions about your medical care, Louisiana law automatically gives your next-of-kin the right to make those decisions for you.  For the purpose of authorizing medical treatment, your next-of-kin is the first available person on the following list:  spouse, adult child, parent, brother or sister, more remote relatives. 

If the next-of-kin knows and respects your wishes and if he or she will be available to consult with your health care providers, then you do not need a Medical Power-of-Attorney.

But you should have a Medical Power-of-Attorney if:

1.     Your next-of-kin will be unavailable or unwilling to make medical decisions for you;

2.     You do not trust your next-of-kin to carry out your wishes; or

3.     You want someone other than your next-of-kin to make medical decisions for you.

Anyone you name in your Medical Power-of-Attorney must be at least 18 years old.  Also, that person should live near you so he or she will be available to consult with your doctors and should be someone who knows and will carry out your wishes.

A Living Will is a document in which you place limitations on the type and extent of medical treatment you will receive at the end-stage of a fatal illness.  It only applies when the following conditions have been met:

1.     Two doctors have certified that you have an incurable illness which is likely to cause your death in the near future regardless of the medical treatment you receive;

2.      Without life-sustaining treatment your death is imminent; and

3.      The life-sustaining treatment will not make you any better but will only prolong the dying process.

A Living Will is usually used to limit medical treatment under the above conditions, that is, to specify that you do not want to be put on a breathing machine, given cardiopulmonary resuscitation, etc.  However, if you wish, you could leave instructions stating that you are to be given such treatments and kept alive as long as possible.

This depends on your wishes and your situation.  As with other medical decisions, if you have not already made decisions about life-support, Louisiana laws automatically give certain relatives the right to make those decisions for you.  However, only a very close relative, such as a spouse or parent, automatically has the legal authority to have life-support treatment withheld from you.  A more distant relative, such as an aunt or cousin, will not automatically have this authority, even if he or she has the authority to make other medical decisions for you.

You do not need a Living Will if your next-of-kin is a close relative whom you want to make these decisions, and if he or she is comfortable with this responsibility.

You may name someone else, other than a close relative, to make life-support decisions for you.  Naming that person in a Medical Power-of-Attorney is not enough.  You must expressly state in writing that he or she has the right to make decisions about life-support.  Any document giving someone the authority to make decisions about life-support must have 2 witnesses. 

You should have a Living Will if you have wishes about life-support and if:

1.     You have not named anyone to make these decisions for you;

2.     Your next-of-kin is not a close relative; or

3.     Your next-of-kin will be unavailable or unwilling to make these decisions; or

4.     You do not trust your next-of-kin to respect your wishes; or

5.     You do not want to burden anyone else with the responsibility of making these decisions.

Yes.  You must let your health care providers know what you have decided.  You should give a copy of your Medical Power-of-Attorney and Living Will to any doctor or other health care provider whom you regularly see.

If you can, you should also discuss these documents with your health care providers.  Many providers are not used to consulting someone who is not a family member.  If you have named someone in your documents who is not a family member, try to introduce him or her to your doctor or other health care provider and emphasize that he or she, not your relatives, will be making decisions about your medical care if you become unable to.  The law allowing Living Wills is new and many doctors are either unfamiliar with, or uncomfortable with, the withholding of life-support.  For this reason, you should go over your Living Will with your doctor, emphasizing when you want treatment withheld.