A health care directive and living will is a document that you can use to appoint an agent to make health care decisions on your behalf and to make your wishes known on the issues of life support and life-prolonging procedures.

According to Nebraska’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, any adult who is of sound mind has the right to make their own choices regarding the future use of life-sustaining treatment. Life-sustaining treatment means medical procedures that only serve to maintain a vegetative state or artificially prolong the dying process. It includes such treatments as artificial hydration, feeding tubes, and ventilators. If you would prefer to withhold these types of procedures, you can specify this through your living will. This can be a difficult decision, and it may be helpful to talk it over with a trusted doctor or your loved ones.

You can choose someone to make health care decisions on your behalf through a power of attorney for health care if you would like. This is another term for a document to nominate a health care agent. The legal term for the person you choose is “attorney-in-fact.” But they do not need to be an attorney. They are usually referred to as your health care agent. If you name a health care agent, you should make sure that this person is familiar with your health care wishes and is willing to assert your medical decisions to your doctors and family members if necessary.

Many people choose a close family member like a sibling or adult child for this role. It’s a good idea to choose a healthcare agent who lives in close proximity to you, and who will likely be available at short notice. There are a few legal restrictions on who may act as your health care agent that you should be aware of.

Under Nebraska law, you may not choose any of the following individuals as your health care agent:

• Your attending physician or someone who is a member of your mental health care team
• An employee of your attending physician or your mental health treatment team
• Any owner, operator, or employee of a health care provider where you reside or receive treatment
• Anybody who is acting as attorney-in-fact for ten or more people

The exception to the final three restrictions would be if the individual is a relative of yours.

To make your health care directive and living will legally valid, you must sign it or direct someone to do so for you. You should sign in the presence of two witnesses or a notary public. But you should be aware of certain restrictions on your choice of witnesses. The following is a short summary of the witness limitations, but you should consult an attorney to make sure the witnesses you have are valid under Nebraska law.

No more than one of your witnesses may be anyone who is an administrator or employee of your health care provider. Further, you may not choose an employee of your health insurance or life insurance company to witness your documents. These restrictions do not apply if you are notarizing your document rather than having it witnessed.

After you have properly signed your health care directive and living will, you need to make sure they get into the right hands. You should give a copy to your healthcare agent (if you chose one), your medical providers, and your close loved ones. It’s also a good idea to keep a copy of your documents in a safe place that trusted loved ones can access if needed.

After you have completed your health care directive and living will, you should make sure to review them at least every few years to make sure they are current. If you have gone through significant life changes, you may need to review your choices sooner. Major life events include:

• Moving across state lines
• A new medical diagnosis
• A marriage or a divorce

These events could cause you to rethink the choices in your health care directive and living will. In the case of marriage or divorce, you may wish to change your healthcare agent. Rest assured that if you create your health care directive and living will through FindLaw, you can make changes to your document for a full year after purchase.