Thoughtful and comprehensive estate planning goes beyond wills and trusts. It also includes provisions for issues such as possible disability, long-term care needs, and instructions for next of kin in case of physical or mental incapacitation.
To schedule an insightful, individualized consultation with an experienced Western Pennsylvania lawyer regarding the benefits and options involved with advance directives, contact West & Associates, P.C.
Good preparation before drafting and formalizing an advance directive (also known as a living will or healthcare directive) includes discussion of beliefs, preferences, and priorities. It may be helpful for husband and wife, or elderly mother/father, and adult children to participate in a consultation with Attorney West to articulate and clarify answers to questions such as the following:
- If you are permanently unconscious and there is no realistic hope of significant recovery, would you want to be kept alive with tube feedings?
- Would you consent to devote your organs and tissues, at the time of your death for the purposes of transplant, medical study, or education?
- Would you want certain life-prolonging procedures if you suffer from severe and irreversible brain damage or a brain disease with no realistic hope of significant recovery?
- If you have an end stage medical condition which will result in your death despite the introduction or continuation of treatment, what life-prolonging procedures do you want?
Attorney Art West recognizes the need to try to manage symptoms and direct health care providers to follow our instructions and wishes. Despite our efforts, we do not control death. In the presence of death, family members, attorneys, and medical care agents will bear witness and do the best we can.
Conversations in consultation with a lawyer are helpful for many people when the time to apply the wishes expressed in a living will comes. Whether or not West & Associates, P.C. assisted your loved one in the drafting and finalizing of an advance directive, we offer consultations to answer questions such as, “My family member is very ill. He or she had a stroke or bypass surgery. How does the health care directive actually apply in this particular situation?”
Many people make the mistake of thinking that a cookie-cutter living will is a simple matter to prepare and sign on their own. An experienced estate planning attorney sheds light on the significance of choices that will be recorded in black and white in an advance directive or living will. Contact West & Associates, P.C. through this web site or by calling 1 (800) 738-2261 to schedule a consultation.