Sophia (not her real name) is 93 years old and living in a care home. Because of her recent stroke, she is often unable to make her own day-to-day decisions - what she eats, what she wears, what activities she participates in and whether she wants to consent to medical treatment.
Sophia definitely does not want to be kept alive in a vegetative state. Fortunately, she has a representative agreement to protect her from this.
By law, neither her children nor her care home would have the ability make those decisions for her. So she would be stuck. Without a representation agreement her quality of life would be severely impacted.
Representation agreements (often referred to as living wills) are legal documents that allow a person, called the representative, to deal with your health and personal care decisions if you are unable to make those decisions for yourself.
In the past, I was slow in recommending these agreements. However, I have seen a number of cases where situations like this arise, which has led to family disagreements, wishes for health care being ignored and considerable legal expenses. Nobody wants to be in this situation.
Here are four reasons why you should make a representation agreement (living will):
No. 1 - You can choose who can make your health and personal care decisions, which can reduce stress for your family and your children and save you considerable money.
No. 2 - Representation agreements direct your representative to make specific decisions on your behalf, such as consenting to experimental medical treatments, which may have significant benefits for your health, but you may not be capable of understanding due to your condition.
No. 3 - Allows your representative to make decisions about your personal care to ensure that your dignity is preserved. For example, Sophia's representative can help her decide what she eats, where she lives and the level of care she receives.
No. 4 - Dictates your binding end-of-life decisions. For example, Sophia does not want to be resuscitated. Without this specification, she could be kept alive in a vegetative state indefinitely.
No one wants to be kept alive in a vegetative state or be left in a care home without proper care and dignity.
Having a representation agreement can protect you from these issues.
Carolynne Burkholder is a lawyer at Heather Sadler Jenkins LLP who does house calls. Email at [email protected] or phone 250-565-8757.
