Creating an Advance Directive
What is an Advance Directive?
An advance health care directive lets your physician, family, and friends know your health care preferences, including the types of special treatment you want or don't want at the end of life, your desire for diagnostic testing, surgical procedures, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and organ donation. There are multiple components that you may wish to include, which are outlined below. As your life changes, your advance directive can too.
Why do you need one?
To communicate your wishes, values, and beliefs. To help your friends and family make informed decisions about your care on your behalf. An advance directive can bring peace of mind during life’s difficult moments.
Who should have one?
Everyone! Especially those with terminal diagnoses or nearing the end of life.
You are not alone!
As part of our doula services, completing advance directives with you is one of our many offerings. We also offer a comprehensive self-guided workbook that will be available for purchase in late January 2025.
Planning Components and Forms
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Living Will
A Living Will, also known as a Personal Directive, is a non-legally binding document that specifies the medical care you want to receive if you are unable to make medical decisions for yourself. It's a type of advance directive that can help ensure you receive the care you want if you are seriously ill, in a coma, or near the end of your life. You can write your own living will as long as it's signed.
You can use this directive to start a discussion with your family or anyone important to you, write down your instructions for your Health Care Agent, or start your health care plan if you have not yet chosen a Health Care Agent in a Health Care Proxy.
More information can be found at Honoring Choices Massachusets.
Massachusetts law about health care proxies and living wills
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Health Care Proxy
A Health Care Proxy is a legal document where a person appoints another individual, called a proxy or agent, to make medical decisions on their behalf if they become unable to make those decisions themselves due to illness or incapacitation; essentially, it allows someone you trust to speak for you regarding your medical care when you can't communicate your wishes.
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POLST
A Portable Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form, formerly known as MOLST in MA, is a medical order that patients can use to request or refuse life-sustaining treatments, such as CPR and feeding tubes. It's intended for patients with serious health conditions who might die within a year or require long-term care.
A healthcare provider completes the form with the patient, and then the patient or their legal representative signs it. The form is active once it's signed.
Learn more at POLST.org
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Durable Power of Attorney
A Durable Power of Attorney (DPA) is a legal document that gives someone the authority to make decisions for another person. The person who grants the DPA is called the "principal", and the person who is given the authority is called the "attorney-in-fact". The DPA can be used for financial, medical, or legal decisions.
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CC/DNR Order
A Comfort Care (CC) / Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order is a legal document that instructs healthcare providers not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if a patient's heart or breathing stops. A CC/DNR order is written by a physician or other authorized practitioner on a special form. It can be made by the patient or their representative, such as a spouse, relative, friend, or lawyer.
A CC/DNR order only applies to CPR, and does not affect other treatments that may be used to keep a person alive, such as medicine, food, or fluids. Use a POLST form to specify wishes for additional types of medical care.
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Donations & Anatomical Gifting
To become an organ or tissue donor, you can register with your state's donor registry, usually by signing up when applying for or renewing your driver's license at the DMV, or online through your state's website; it's essential to inform your family about your decision to donate so they can support your wishes if the situation arises. You must register while living, as the decision to donate cannot be made on your behalf.
An anatomical gift is a donation of all or part of a human body to be used for research, education, therapy, or transplantation after death. Anatomical gifts are a vital resource for medical education and research, as the study of human anatomy is the basis for all medical knowledge.
Visit our linked page to learn more about these options.