Advances in healthcare technology, recent court rulings and emerging political trends have brought with them a quantity of life-and-death selections which many have never ever ahead of regarded. The looming prospect of legalized physician-assisted suicide is a single such option which severely erodes the inherent value and dignity of human life. The considerably-publicized efforts of certain doctors to present carbon monoxide poisoning or prescribe lethal drugs for their terminally ill individuals constitute euthanasia. So may perhaps the removal of certain life-sustaining therapies from a patient who is not in a terminal situation. Euthanasia and willful suicide, in any form, are offenses against life they should be and are rejected by the vast majority of U.S. states.
Nevertheless, men and women faced with these difficult dilemmas need to be created conscious that there are morally-appropriate, life-affirming legal alternatives accessible to them. 1 such alternative, for Catholics and other individuals, can be a “wellness care energy of attorney” and “living will.” South Carolina State law permits you to appoint somebody as your agent to make health care decisions for you in the occasion you drop the capacity to determine for oneself. This appointment is executed by signifies of a “health care power of lawyer” form, a model for which can be obtained from your lawyer.
A well being care energy of lawyer can be a morally and legally acceptable suggests of guarding your wishes, values and religious beliefs when faced with a critical illness or debilitating accident. Accordingly, for persons wishing to execute well being care powers of lawyer, see the following guidelines and guidance from the authoritative teachings and traditions of numerous religious faiths.
The intent of the health care energy of attorney law is to permit adults to delegate their God-offered, legally-recognized appropriate to make overall health care decisions to a designated and trusted agent. The law does not intend to encourage or discourage any specific well being care treatment. Nor does it legalize or promote euthanasia, suicide or assisted suicide. The well being care power of attorney law makes it possible for you, or any competent adult, to designate an “agent,” such as a loved ones member or close pal, to make overall health care choices for you if you shed the ability to make a decision for oneself in the future. This is accomplished by finishing a well being care energy of attorney type.
You…
o Have the suitable to make all of your personal overall health care decisions though capable of doing so. The overall health care energy of lawyer only becomes powerful when and if you become incapacitated via illness or accident.
o Have the right to challenge your doctor’s determination that you are not capable of generating your personal medical decisions.
o CAN give particular instructions about your health-related therapy to your agent and can forbid your agent from producing certain remedy choices. To do so, you merely have to have to communicate your wishes, beliefs and instructions to your agent. Instructions about any precise treatment options or procedures which you need or do not wish beneath specific circumstances can also be written in your wellness care energy of lawyer and/or provided in a separate living will.
o Can revoke your health care energy of attorney or the appointment of your agent at any time while competent.
o May possibly not designate as your agent an administrator or employee of the hospital, nursing household or mental hygiene facility to which you are admitted, unless they are connected by blood, marriage or adoption. 1996
Your agent…
o Can start making decisions for you only when your medical professional determines that you are no longer capable to make overall health care choices for your self.
o May well make any and all overall health care decisions for you, which includes treatments for physical or mental situations and choices relating to life-sustaining procedures, unless you limit the power of your agent.
o Will not have authority to make choices about the artificial provision of nutrition and hydration (nourishment and water through feeding tubes) unless he or she clearly knows that these choices are in accord with your wishes about these measures.
o Is protected from holistic mental health treatment when acting in fantastic faith.
o Ought to base his or her choices on your wishes or, if your wishes can not be reasonably ascertained, in your “greatest interests.” The agent’s decisions will take precedence over the decisions of all other persons, regardless of family members relationships.