An excerpt transcript from Spring Tea with Kerlin Walsh Law weekly Facebook LIVE video, recorded 4/2/21.
Hello, my lovelies. Welcome to Spring Tea with Kerlin Walsh Law. Today we are going to talk about a serious and somber subject, but a very important one, your end-of-life wishes.
You’ve heard me many times when I talk about estate planning that everyone should do this, that these are no-brainers. These documents save you so much money, time and privacy. When it comes to your end-of-life instructions, however, it is very much your own personal philosophy as to whether you want to leave your wishes, whether you want your family to know about it, and whether you want those wishes and choices to have legal effect.
If you know what you want, get it into your documents. There are three ways we do that here in Illinois.
The first is your Healthcare Power of Attorney. The Healthcare Power of Attorney since 2013 will give you two choices. You decide, that if the doctors have determined that a procedure in place (such as life support), is just death-delaying. Do you want that procedure to continue or do you want to be let go? Do you want to be given just comfort care and be allowed to die naturally? Or, do you want to stay on life support regardless of the possibility of recovery, regardless of the cost, regardless of any of those other factors? In the Healthcare Power, you choose which of those two you want your agents to follow, or whether you don’t choose any, and then let them make the decision themselves if that time comes. That’s the Power of Attorney for Healthcare.
Now that means you’re leaving that decision in their hands. Many people do not want to leave that choice in the family hands. Many clients have told me, “I had to make the decision for my father, my spouse, for my child. I don’t want anybody to have to make that decision for me when my time comes.” You can take that end-of-life decision out of your family’s hands and get it into a separate document called a Living Will Declaration.
The Living Will Declaration recognizes that you have a right to refuse treatment here in Illinois. Many other states also have this type of Declaration. When the time comes, you may be unable at that time to tell your family and healthcare providers that you are at end of life and are just being kept alive by life support. So, you say in this document, “When that time comes, and when the only thing keeping me alive is the life support, I want it withdrawn. I want comfort care, and I want to die naturally.” And your wishes will be fulfilled.
Many people ask me if a DNR is the same as a Living Will, and how does that fit into the picture? I say that a DNR is kind of the opposite of a Living Will. A DNR, “Do Not Resuscitate”, is if you are naturally slipping away, and the DNR process brings you back to life, or resuscitation. Whereas, with a Living Will, you are only being kept alive by life support and you’re saying to withdraw that and let you slip away.
We typically ask our Estate Planning clients what they want. If we know they don’t want to be kept alive, if it’s just death-delaying, we get in place the Healthcare Power and the Living Will. A Do Not Resuscitate, in my personal and legal philosophy, is really for a very different stage of life. Not when you’re planning right now when you’re healthy, because if you did have a car accident or an emergency, it’s my belief, and probably yours, that you should be resuscitated. However, if you’re on hospice, if you’re on an end-of-life situation, perhaps if you were in your nineties and you’re in cardiac arrest and you’re resuscitated, that’s followed by another cardiac arrest that’s followed by respiratory arrest a day or two later, those are the times that having a DNR in place does make sense. A DNR has to be agreed upon and signed by your doctor, and often has just gotten in place when you’re already in an end-of-life situation.
DNR, Living Will and Healthcare Power of Attorney are all ways that you can explore your feelings about end-of-life. It’s certainly planning that is not for everyone. I’ve always thought about it a little bit differently since a little lady said to me one time, “But, what about a miracle, how long shall I leave myself for a miracle?” So, you can leave end-of-life instructions, but maybe leave 30 days or two weeks on that life support for visitation by a miracle.
So, many of you have thought about end-of-life instructions. If you have not, I urge you to have the conversations and discuss it amongst your loved ones. If you know what you want, get it into your legal documents. This way, your personal philosophy will be fulfilled and you have given it legal effect in your documents.
I’m going to leave you today with a quote by Rebecca Wells, “Life is short but wide.” So live it wonderfully, lovingly. I’m also going to quote Barbara Sher who said, “I’m not even sure that it’s short.” We have a wonderful life in front of us. None of us know the day or the hour, so make your plans by all means for the end of it. While we’re here, standing in our shoes, living and breathing, make the most of it.
Much, much love. Thank you for watching. I will see you next time on Spring Tea with Kerlin Walsh Law. Goodbye.
Watch the recording from Facebook LIVE 4/2/21
