An Advanced Encinitas CA Health Care Directive or a Health Care Power of Attorney, these terms are used interchangeably, allows you to appoint someone as an “attorney-in-fact” who will have the legal authority to make health care agency decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself, if you become incapacitated in any way.

With a Health Care Power of Attorney, you can make specific instructions about the care you want to receive, or, more importantly, about the care you may not want to receive.

For instance, if you have no directive and it is your wish not to exist on a respirator if you have no brain activity, without a proper Health Care Agency, a hospital may have to employ all extraordinary measures that you would never have authorized if you were able to communicate your decision.

It also protects you in the event your family disagrees about what efforts should be employed to keep you or alive or not if you have no Health Care Power of Attorney or have not appointed an agent to act in your place for you. It’s not uncommon for brothers and sisters to disagree about what Mom or Dad wanted when an end of life decision has to be made, so having a Health Care Agency saves you and your family from those highly charged emotional situations.