Your health care directive and living will, also known as an Appointment of Health Care Agent in Arkansas, will require you to make choices on some specific end-of-life health care hypotheticals. Through your living will, you will make legally binding decisions on these issues. You will specify whether you would want life-sustaining treatment to prolong your death if you had an irreversible condition. You will also choose whether you would want artificial hydration, artificial nutrition, and other life-support procedures. Whether you would choose to withdraw or maintain these medical treatments is a very personal health care decision. Each person must make this choice according to their unique needs and personal values. However, it may be helpful to seek advice from your primary care doctor or loved ones if you have trouble making these difficult decisions.

A durable power of attorney for health care is another type of advance directive. With a durable power of attorney (a “POA”), you can appoint health care agent to make treatment decisions on your behalf. Your agent will only exercise this power if you become medically incapacitated. A healthcare proxy or surrogate is a person who has authority to make treatment decisions on your behalf if you are unable to. When you are choosing a health care agent, be sure that they know you, your end-of-life treatment preferences, and are willing to carry out the terms of your living will. It’s a good idea to name an alternate agent in case your original choice becomes unable to carry out these duties.

You need to sign your health care directive and living will or direct someone to sign it for you. There should be two witnesses present, who must also sign. If you are naming a health care agent, this person should not act as a witness. Further, one of your witnesses should be someone who is not related to you, and who does not stand to gain any inheritance from you. If you cannot sign in the presence of witnesses, you need to get your health care directive and living will notarized.

Once you have signed your health care directive and living will, you need to make sure that it’s in the right hands. Most importantly, you should give a copy of it to your health care agent. They should keep it and store it in a safe place. It’s also a good idea to give a copy to your close loved ones just in case they accompany you during a medical emergency. As a contingency plan, you could consider creating an account with an online health care directive and living will registry. These services allow medical professionals to access your living will electronically.

You should review and update your health care directive and living will from time to time. A good practice is to do a review at least every few years. You should also review your choices if you go through major life changes. Examples of these might be divorce, a new diagnosis, or an out-of-state move. These life situations could cause you to change your preferences. In the case of divorce, you may wish to name a new health care agent. Remember that if you create your health care directive and living will through FindLaw, you can make unlimited updates to your living will for a year after purchase.