Living Wills

Living wills, or advance directives, allow decisions to be made in advance in case a person ever becomes dependant on medical life support. They are a result of medical advances that give doctors the ability to sustain life even when a person is in a coma or vegetative state.

A living will allows a person to specify whether and under what conditions life-support efforts should be administered. Some decisions a person may include in a living will are whether certain surgical procedures should take place and if artificial feeding is desired.

This type of will, which has more similarities to a Power of Attorney than a will, becomes effective when it is provided to a doctor after the creator is unable to make health care decisions.

The conditions of the formation of a living vary from state to state. Some of the details that vary include:

• the number of witnesses present at the signing
• whether a notary public must be present
• whether an agent (person appointed to carry out conditions of the will) is required