In the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This is especially true when it comes to estate planning. A failure to account for your family’s future is a failure that affects all your loved ones and can make their lives especially difficult in the event you are unable to make decisions on your own behalf. A living will accounts for this sort of scenario and puts in place a plan to combat it. Here is what you need to know about living wills in Pennsylvania, and why we think everyone should have one. What is a living will? According to Pennsylvania Statutes, Title 20, Chapter 54 § 5422, a living will “expresses a principal’s wishes and instructions” for health care and health care directions when the principal is either incompetent, has a terminal medical condition, or is permanently unconscious. Essentially, a living will is a document that expresses someone’s wishes regarding end-of-life health care decisions. This becomes especially important when someone is medically incapable of making these decisions themselves. This could be because they are impaired by diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease or are in a coma. LIVING WILLS Preparing for the Unexpected
is not capable of making their own medical decisions, and must certify it in writing. This helps to preserve a patient’s rights, and means that a living will does not trap them into giving up their right to make their own medical decisions when they are still able. What happens if there is no living will? If you do not have a living will in place, then your family may have to fight in court for the right to make medical decisions on your behalf. This can be costly and time-consuming. And while your family is fighting to make medical decisions on your behalf, critical time will elapse and important decisions will be left unmade. That is why we encourage all of our clients to get a living will. You never know when you will need it, so it’s best to be prepared.
A patient may revoke a living will at any time, even if they are terminally ill. In fact, in order to implement a living will, a physician has to find that the patient
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