Imagine being in a coma. Would you want to remain on life support? Would you want your family to make the decision to end your care? A living will can help avoid this situation. It serves to inform family and health care providers about your decisions regarding your medical care.
In Pennsylvania, you have the legal and ethical right to make your own decisions about the type of health care you want. As long as you are well enough, your physicians will involve you directly in making decisions about your medical treatment. However, if you are unable to make decisions about your care, others will have to make these decisions for you.
A living will is a document that provides written health care treatment instructions. It outlines your choices about starting, continuing, refusing or stopping life-preserving treatment and other specific directions.
The Allegheny County Bar Association and Allegheny County Bar Foundation have multiple resources in place to help you properly prepare a living will. First, a free Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will Form created by the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA) and Allegheny County Medical Society is available at https://www.acba.org/portals/1/pdf/LivingWillPowerofAttorney.pdf. Second, the ACBA’s Lawyer Referral Service can help connect you with an attorney who can draft a living will to fit your particular needs. Visit GetAPittsburghLawyer.com for more information.
Finally, if your income is very low, you may be eligible to have your living will and other documents prepared at no cost by a volunteer attorney from the Pro Bono Center of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation at a variety of locations in the Pittsburgh area. For more information, visit www.pittsburghprobono.org or call 412-402-6677.
Every adult should have a living will. Make yours today.
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