By: O. Reginald Osenton, Esquire

A local case, which has drawn national attention, is the Terri Schiavo case. For many years, her husband and parents waged a court battle over whether or not to let her die. Although Terri’s recent death put an end to that battle, opinions differ about whether Terri’s husband and the courts did the right thing. However, the one truth that is clear and is demonstrated in the Schiavo case is that each of us should have advance directives concerning our care during times of incapacity.

As a 26-year old, Terri Schiavo probably gave very little thought to planning for her potential incapacity. That is when she suffered a heart attack which incapacitated her. The Schiavo case stresses the point that, no matter what your age or health is, you should execute advance directives.

So what are advance directives, and what to they do? In most cases, there are two documents you should consider (although sometime these two documents are merged into one). First, we suggest you execute a designation of health care surrogate. By doing so, you can designate who will make medical decisions for you in the event that you are unable to do so for yourself. The surrogate has the ability to decide what treatment you should receive, and what treatment will be refused.

We also recommend that you execute a living will. Typically, living wills provide that a person is not to be kept alive by artificial means if doing so will merely prolongs that person’s death. Rather than giving anyone discretion or authority, as in the case of a designation of a health care surrogate, a living will is your written instructions to your doctor to not keep you alive artificially, and to let you die.

In either advance directive, you can include special instructions. For example, you can designate specifically what treatments you wish to receive and what treatments you do not wish to receive, or you can direct whether or not you should be put on a feeding tube.

Imagine the time and expense Terri Schiavo could have saved her family if she had executed advance directives. Think of the time and expense you can save your family members by executing these relatively simple documents. By executing advance directives, you can designate who will make decisions for you, and you can provide your written instructions to your family members and doctors what care you should receive if incapacity occurs. In addition, if you have advance directives, you can save the time and expense required for family members to obtain guardianship over you, should that become necessary if you are incapacitated.

None of us like to think of our demise. However, as the Schiavo case demonstrates, we each owe it to our families to make a plan.