What Are Medical Directives and Living Wills?
What Are Medical Directives and Living Wills? A living will and a medical directive are both legal documents that allow individuals to make decisions about their medical care in case they become unable to communicate their wishes, according to Harry Margolis, author of Get Your Ducks in a Row.
Key Takeaways
- Create a healthcare proxy (naming an agent) AND a separate medical directive to guide that agent's decisions—combining them into one document can cause hospitals to ignore your agent and follow the directive instead
- Use structured tools like Five Wishes workbook or Conversation Project (ConversationProject.org) to think through specific scenarios and preferences, not just whether you want life support
- Have these conversations repeatedly over time, not just once—your preferences may change as you age or face actual health situations, and capacity becomes harder to assess during a crisis
- Be as specific as possible in your directives about conditions and preferences, but recognize it's difficult without medical knowledge—work with an attorney to draft language that's actionable for your agent
- Complete your healthcare directives NOW while you have full capacity; waiting until a stroke, dementia, or surgery is imminent may limit what you can legally document and what decisions you're still capable of making
What Are Medical Directives and Living Wills? A living will and a medical directive are both legal documents that allow individuals to make decisions about their medical care in case they become unable to communicate their wishes, according to Harry Margolis, author of Get Your Ducks in a Row. Watch this video to learn about Smart Estate Planning and find more videos featuring Harry Margolis at this link: https://www.finstream.tv/featured/harry-margolis/. Harry’s book, Get Your Ducks In A Row is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001KDASYO/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=c74c3f93-02b6-4ec5-b42c-fc6c548c379d
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