What Is a Health Care Directive?

A Health Care Directive specifies the type and level of health care (or life support) you want to receive. This document gives you the power to choose or deny life-sustaining treatment to postpone the moment of death or maintain you in a permanent unconscious state. A Health Care Directive gives you control on whether life-sustaining treatments should be used, withheld or withdrawn when diagnosed with a terminal condition.

What Happens Without a Health Care Directive?

Health Care Directives give you control over your body and the procedures used to sustain your life when you are unable to make those decisions. In the absence of a Health Care Directive, these decisions are left to family members and medical professionals. These individuals may or may not be aware of your beliefs and preferences (or may be unwilling to follow your preferences). The case of Terri Shiavo is representative of the sort of discord and potential ugliness that can ensue both in and outside the courtroom without a Health Care Directive.