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Directive May Be Written or Oral
Section 4670 of the
California Probate Code provides that an individual may give a health
care instruction orally or in writing. It is not necessary to have
a written directive if you make your desires orally known to your
physician. Since doctors have many patients, however, it would be
impractical to expect them to remember all the health care desires of
their many patients. This directive allows you to commit your
desires to writing so that it can become a part of your medical
records.
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Election of Treatment(s)
After you have completed this directive and
printed it out, you will be allowed to check off treatments you want and
don't want. You will be given the option of receiving
artificial nutrition and hydration and other treatment.
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Pain Management
This directive provides that you be given all treatment for alleviation
of pain or discomfort at all times, even if it hastens your death except
for treatment you particularly specify you do not want.
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Anatomical Gifts
This directive allows you to donate organs
and/or tissues for transplantation once you have been declared dead.
If you elect to donate organs and/or tissues for transplantation, you
may be maintained on artificial support systems only for the period of
time required to maintain the viability of and to remove such organs
and/or tissues.
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Operative Date
Your living will becomes operative when a copy is provided to
your attending physician; and you are determined by
your attending physician to be incompetent and in a terminal condition or
in a state of permanent unconsciousness.
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Executing and Delivering Your
Directive
After you have completed your directive you should sign it before a
notary public OR in front of two witnesses. If you sign in front of two
witnesses pay particular attention to the qualifications contained in
the witness statement. You should provide a copy of your completed
advance directive to your attending physician and other health care providers
and they shall make it a part of your medical records. You should also
give a copy to trusted family members.
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If you should have an incurable or
irreversible condition that will cause your death within a
relatively short time, you may declare that your life not be prolonged by
administration of life-sustaining procedures.
