“The Importance of Advanced Directives” by attorney Colleen Sinclair Prosser
The attorneys at Sinclair Prosser Gasior can help you to identify and make use of legal tools that will allow you to protect your future. One of the many important things that you need to think about is what will happen if you get sick and cannot make medical decisions on your own. While no one likes to think about this happening to them, a serious illness or injury can occur at any age so it is essential to make certain that you are prepared. 
Advanced directives are tools that give you the power to specify your preferences for medical care in advance. They include thing like a living will that gives you the ability to consent to or deny consent for specific medical procedures and tools.
There are many reasons why it is so important for you to use advanced directives to control your medical care:
- Advanced directives give you the ability to make life and death decisions. You likely have definitive opinions about how to weigh quality of life versus quantity of life and you should express your preferences so that no one else has to make these decisions for you. By using advanced directives, you maintain your autonomy on the most important medical decisions you’ll face in your life so you get only the care you want.
- Advanced directives allow decisions to be made in a timely manner. If there’s a medical emergency and you have advanced directives in place, there will be no questions about how doctors should proceed and there will be no chance of delays occurring as medical professionals find someone with authority to give consent to important medical procedures.
- Advanced directives help you to protect your family from fighting. By creating advanced directives, you make your preferences known so your family does not have to guess who should be in charge of making your decisions or what your preferences would be with regards to those choices. This ensures your family members will not end up fighting over the kinds of care that you would have wanted.
- Advanced directives allow you to protect your family from guilt. Very often, when life or death decisions need to be made, family members grapple with what choice is the right one. If your loved ones decide to withhold lifesaving medical treatment, they may feel guilt over the fact that they made this choice. By making your own decisions in advance, you spare your family from having to make tough choices that could haunt them.
The attorneys at Sinclair Prosser Gasior will provide the personalized help and support that you need to make smart choices about what will happen if you become seriously ill or sustain a serious injury. It’s imperative that you are prepared in advance.
To find out more about how our legal team can help you with advanced directives and with taking other steps to plan for incapacity, join us for a free seminar.
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