A health care proxy allows you to appoint someone else to act as your agent for medical decisions. In general, a health care proxy takes effect only when you require medical treatment and a physician determines that you are unable to communicate your wishes concerning what that treatment should be. Appointing someone to serve as your agent helps ensure that your medical treatment instructions will be carried out.

While a health care proxy serves to appoint an agent to speak for you, you can also use it to give the agent guidance about your medical wishes. Following are some issues that can be addressed in a health care proxy:

• The name of the person authorized to act for you. We always recommend appointing an alternate as well.
• If you are terminally ill, in a coma, or have brain damage with no hope of recovery, you can explain the kind of treatment you don’t want. For example, do you want feeding tubes, resuscitation, dialysis, or blood transfusions?
• Whether or not you want to be kept alive by machines if you are in a persistent vegetative state.
• Under what circumstances you want pain medication to be administered.
• Whether you want to donate your organs.
• Whether you want to be cremated or buried and where and how your remains should be disposed of.

Whatever choices you make, you should take time to consider your health care wishes before drafting a health care proxy. For this reason, signing a generic hospital form is not a good idea, as such a form will not take your individual wishes into account. In addition, if you already have a health care proxy as a part of your estate plan, the generic form will revoke your more personal health care proxy.

The elderlaw attorneys at McLaughlin & Quinn, LLC’s Law For Life can help you create a document that addresses your situation.  For more information, visit us at McLaughlin & Quinn, LLC Law For Life or contact Attorney Jill E. Sugarman at 401-421-5115 x215 or by e-mail at jsugarman@mclaughlinquinn.com.