Advance Directives

Advance Directives

Introduction to Health Care Advance Directives

Advance directives in health care refer to the credentials which convey the wishes and will regarding the health care decisions in case the individual becomes inept of making decisions regarding their health care. The advance directives may be classified as two types; durable powers of attorney, and living wills for health care. The durable power of attorney is the legal basis in duration of the advance directives. Legal basis started in the year 1991, at the time as a federal law known as the Patient Self-Determination Act was regulated. This act necessitates that the patients are notified regarding their right to take part in taking decisions regarding their health care, counting in their right to have an advance directive. Advance directives may be broadly classified into two types; proxy and instructive. Instructive directives take into consideration the penchants relating to the stipulation of the specific treatments or categories of treatments.

The most widespread examples of instructive directives are the living wills; however the other various sorts of living wills like no CPR directives or no transfusion directives are also utilized. In general, a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPAHC), which is a proxy directive, takes into consideration the an alternative decision maker's title who makes decisions regarding patient's health care as per the patient's choice. Such an alternative decision maker makes decisions regarding the health care of a patient in case they are debilitated (Cartwright & Parker, 2004). The ethical ground for advance directives is, to a great extent, related to the living wills. A living will articulate the preferences of a person for health care. It is termed as such for the reason that it is effective at the same time as the individual is still alive. Living wills come into effect only in the event that the individual has lost the capability of making decisions regarding their health care and also, the individual is in a specific state delineated by the state law, which is generally a permanent unconsciousness or a terminal condition.

Additional conditions have been recognized by some states like an end-stage condition. It is widely believed that death is preferred to being continually reliant on the health care equipment or not having any hope of regaining a particular quality of life. Whereas, it is just as strongly felt by others that technology and acutely heroic actions must be employed for extending the life to as prolonged period as possible, irrespective of the level of health care treatment or therapy needed or the quality of life which is achieved as a result (Cartwright, 2000). A living will permits an individual to articulate any of these preferences or any intermediary initiative which is taken as acceptable by the individual.

A situation related to a living will is an ill individual who suffers from Alzheimer but is yet able to make decisions regarding their health care. They have a preference for being in a room with adequate exposure to sunlight and take their ...