A living will is an important document when a person wishes to express their directives in the end of life situations. Therefore, it is vital to write these documents with extreme care.
In order to create a living will form, you need to download the appropriate template from CocoSign. CocoSign offers this template completely free. In order to know more about the living will form, you can keep reading below:
What Is a Living Will?
A living will is a document that gives advance directives regarding end-of-life medical decisions, medical treatment, and care.
When a person is incapacitated, it can be hard to decide what they want concerning their medical treatment. A living will make this clear by providing the person’s instructions about how they want their treatment to proceed.
A living will is valid only until a person is alive and has no validity after their death. To be accurate, this document is limited to end of life care of a medically incapacitated person.
When and Why a Living Will is Needed?
A living will is required because when people are incapacitated, they cannot personally give directions about how their medical treatment should proceed. However, since these directions are their right, they can lay it out in advance through the living will form.
For example, people can medically fall into a vegetative state where most chances say that they cannot come back to life. A living will form describes if the person would like to go ahead and be on life support or not.
If the person does not wish to be put on life support or does not want to be resuscitated in their living will form, the physicians treating them will be obligated to do so. A living will is generally used by people in their old ages. However, legally any individual that is over 18 years old can sign a living will form.
If a person does not have a living will and falls in a vegetative state, it can lead to arguments among the near and dear ones of the person regarding what medical decisions should be taken. Therefore, a living will form eradicates any chances of conflict by clearly laying out what a person wants to be done.
What Is Included in a Living Will?
A living will should include the following information:
Date of Signing:
The form starts with the date on which the living will form was signed . The person who is signing the form should be over 18 years old when they sign it.
Name and Address:
The person should state their full name along with the complete address and the last four digits of the social security number.
Life Support:
The life support clause describes if the person wishes to be on life support if their condition deteriorates beyond a point. Some people are not comfortable with the standard of living that life support offers, so they opt-out of it. The person can describe the unacceptable quality of life where they would like to opt-out of life support.
Life-Sustaining Treatment:
Even when a person is on life support, they need additional treatment methods to keep them living or to increase their chances of survival. A person can choose which life-sustaining treatments they would like to avoid (such as ventilators).
End of Life Wishes:
End of life wishes detail how the person would like to spend his last moments alive. For example, many people prefer to be taken to their home and spend the last of their life there, rather than in the hospital. People can also mention the funeral arrangements that they would like in this section.
Medical Power of Attorney:
The medical power of attorney is optional, although it is a good idea to attach it with the living will. It gives another individual the power to make medical decisions for a person.
Witness Signature:
A living will form is valid only if it is signed by two witnesses as well. The witnesses should not be related to the person by blood, adoption, or marriage. The witnesses should also be over the age of 18. A person who holds the medical power of attorney for an individual cannot be the witness.
Notary:
Having the will notarized by a notary public makes sure that there is no conflict regarding the will later. When a notary signs the living will, it increases the authenticity of the will so it is highly recommended.
How to Make a Living Will?
In order to make a living will, just follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Download the Living Will Form
First things first, you will need to download the living will form from CocoSign. For your convenience, CocoSign offers the form completely free. Additionally, you can also make any edits in the form before signing it.
Step 2: Choose Medical Treatment Options
The living will form is speculative, so a person needs to take multiple diseases into consideration that could require decisions they are not capable of making. Some of these states include Alzheimer, coma, dementia, etc.
Step 3: Choose End of Life Decisions
Select the end of life decisions that you would like to take in a particular state. For example, if you would like to pull out of life support in a coma, you can state so in the form.
Step 4: (Optional) Choose a Medical Agent
The medical agent is the person who can hold a medical power of attorney and make medical decisions for you. It is optional to choose a medical agent and create a medical power of attorney with the living will form.
Endnotes
If you want to create a living will form, you can download the living will form for free from CocoSign. CocoSign also offers a lot of other documents, forms, and agreement templates for free downloading.
After downloading, you can fill the documents online, print it and fill it, or make any changes to the documents that you require. Go ahead and browse through the vast CocoSign library of agreement and document templates.