Advance Directives

Advance directives are written instructions about medical care that take effect if a person can no longer speak for themselves. They include living wills, health care proxies, and do-not-resuscitate orders. State laws set the forms and rules, and hospitals, doctors, families, and courts all need to understand and respect what a person has written.

People usually ask how to make an advance directive and who should get a copy. They want to know how a living will differs from naming a health care agent, what a do-not-resuscitate order means, whether documents from one state are honored in another, and how to change a directive later.