9+ Living Will Templates – PDF, DOC
We do not wish to burst the bubble you are living in, but death is inevitable. For all of us. For now. So if you are the kind of person who wants to prepare yourself and your family for that fateful event, one of the things that you can do now is to create a formal document called a living will declaration.
Despite the inescapable knowledge of our eventual non-personhood, the circumstances leading up to our own death will often remain a mystery until we get to that point. This does not mean, however, that we cannot prepare ourselves when that event finally occurs. In this article, we share to you the different advantages of preparing a living will that can be used for any end of life circumstances. You may also see legal agreement templates.
In addition, printable template examples of living will template are also included in this article to help guide you in drafting your own or your family’s living will declaration.
Here are the Different Examples of Living Will Templates
As promised, what follows are ten examples of living will and advance directive templates that anyone may use to create their or own advance directive. Note that all of these templates are downloadable as PDF template files. You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer before you can download, view, and edit them. You may also see legal agreements.
Blank Living Will Template
samedical.org
Checklist Health Care Directive or Living Will Template
hov.org
Editable Living Will and Durable Power Of Attorney Template
sos.idaho.gov
What is a Living Will?
A living will is a document that contains information or a set of instructions that any authorized person (usually a licensed attending physician) is required to follow in the event that a person goes into total vegetative or unconscious state. Living wills are also called advance directives or living will declarations since the person who creates the will is technically still alive but is just unable to express himself or herself due to issues with his or her health or due to an injury. You may also see legal notice templates.
A living will is different from a last will and testament. The former is a document used for individuals who are technically still alive but are unable to express their wishes or concerns regarding his or her own medical care secondary to being in a comatose or unconscious state. The latter, on the hand, is used when the testator has died and he or she has created a directive on what will happen to his money, children, and property after his or her death. Both documents need to be notarized and signed in the presence of an attorney and/or witnesses for them to be legal and binding.
Living wills are usually used in life or death situations in which an individual is no longer able to articulate or express his or her wishes or decisions regarding the mode of treatment or medical and surgical care that he or she wants to receive. For example, if a person is involved in a car accident and is only kept alive with the use of a ventilator. As long as the ventilator is used, the individual is breathing but is unable to talk, feel, and/or express his or her concerns. A pre-written living will let the healthcare team and the family members know if the individual wishes to be kept on life support, for how long, and the different medical and nursing treatments that the patient can receive.
If a person did not create a living will declaration or any form of advance directive, the responsibility will fall to the nearest kin or the person who holds a special health care power of attorney. This authorized person will then make the decisions on behalf of the patient.
On the other hand, if an individual created a living will declaration that directs his or her immediate family and physician to withhold or withdraw any life-sustaining treatments or procedures under specific circumstances, the healthcare team and his or her family members are legally required to honor that directive. In this case, a living will also be called a DNR or Do Not Resuscitate order.
Different states and countries will have different rules and regulations regarding the creation of an advance directive that details the end of life care a non-conscious person may receive. Living wills may also be specifically tailored to each person’s preferences will still adhering to local and national laws. You may also see legal statement templates.
Illinois Statutory Living Will Declaration Template
sih.ne
Medical and Surgical Treatment Living Will Template
coloradoadvancedirectives.com
Natural Death Living Will Template
ncmedsoc.org
Advantages of Creating a Living Will
Aside from being something a person creates to prepare for one’s far-off death, living wills and advance directives are may be required for people who are undergoing surgery (in case of complications and other exigencies) and for those who have terminal illnesses. God forbid that you or any of your close family relative are actually in any these situations, but reading the different advantages of drafting a living will right now be of actual use for you in the future. You may also see legal contracts.
Listed below are the top advantages of preparing a living will. Read on…
1. Give out specific instructions for end of life or life-threatening medical events.
As we have mentioned earlier, living wills are usually enacted during specific medical emergencies since these directives will explicitly state what the patient wants to be done if a certain thing happens. A living will directive allows you to be in control of your life until the very end. You may also see legal memo templates.
For example, you can include in your living will if you want to be intubated, get intravenous feedings, or resuscitated endlessly until your condition is restored or improves to an acceptable level. On the flip side, you can also control if you do not want all these treatments and procedures to be done. The decision is on your hands. You may also check this article for sample medical power of attorney form templates.
2. Help family members cope.
Another advantage of creating a living will beforehand is that it can help your family members and significant others to react and cope with the event. Most circumstances that will precipitate the use of living wills are extremely stressful events and these trusted people may not be of sound mind at that point. You may also see lawyer resume templates.
With a living will or an advance health directive, you place lesser responsibility on them since you will be deciding on what medical treatment plan or non-treatment method to follow based on your specific condition. By doing this, you may also save your significant others the inner anguish they may torment themselves with if in case you will meet an untimely end.
3. Legalize and formalize all end of life instructions.
For a living will to be legal and executory, it needs to be signed in the presence of a lawyer and witnesses. This means that you have a living will, your family, friends, and the healthcare team that treats you will need to honor that binding agreement. Of course, there are caveats to this rule especially in states and countries that do not allow euthanasia or assisted suicide. The point still remains that by preparing a living will, you got all your bases covered before your death. You may also see legal cover letters.
4. Protect yourself from neglect.
Another good reason why it makes sense to create a living will is that it can be used to protect yourself from neglect if you get to a prolonged comatose, unconscious, or locked-in state. So if you have all the means and the will to live but if an illness or medical condition may someday take your chance at life away, you can always hang on and stay partly in control by making sure that you have a sample legal and binding directive not to pull the plug on yourself.
This advantage can prove to be especially useful for those who will find themselves contracting a locked-in syndrome. This is a medical condition where a patient’s entire body and voluntary muscles are paralyzed except for the eye’s blinking muscles. It is often hard to diagnose since the syndrome shares the same symptoms of having persistent vegetative states. What sets locked-in syndrome apart is that the affected individual’s cognitive functions are retained but the patient has no way of communicating his or her needs. The patient will also need round-the-clock respiratory support and other medical care plans.
Not to scare you but preparing a living will declaration will save you from a preventable death. A living will declaration may be used to keep you on respiratory ventilation until a proper diagnosis is made and you can be treated properly for the syndrome. You may also see legal invoice templates.
So those are the top reasons why everyone should create a living will or advance health directive. Let these reasons mull over in your head and be ready to make a decision soon by using any of the living will template embedded in this article. You may also see sample legal resume templates.
Nebraska Living Will Declaration Template
dhhs.ne.gov
Ohio Living Will Declaration Template
clevelandclinic.org
Simple Living Will Declaration Template
uchospitals.edu
Veterans Affairs Advance Directive and Living Will Template
va.gov
Are You Ready to Create Your Own Living Will?
So, if the inevitability of your own oblivion worries you, perhaps it is best to just follow what everybody else does. Ignore it. And, just try to live the best life you can have now. You may also see sample land contract forms.
Sure, creating a living will declaration and a last will and testament may be important things you can do but do it without much fuss. Let the different examples in this article guide you. You may also see form templates.
If you found this list article of different living will template examples, do not hesitate to share it with your friends, colleagues, and social media followers.
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