Advance Directives

Healthcare Directives

Advance Directives are documents that direct ones health care during serious illness, if and when that person is unable to direct their own health care. Advance directives may also be called “Healthcare Directives” and include forms such as a living will, durable power of attorney for health care / medical power of attorney, do not resuscitate orders / DNR, and organ donation. These forms may be obtained by clicking below:

Simply put, these are documents that express your wishes for health care during serious illness and are created to let your physician, family and friends know what medical care you do and do not want if you become temporarily or permanently incapacitated.

Living Will

A Living Will directs medical care during life limiting conditions. The Arizona state form entitled, “LIVING WILL (End of Life Care)”, has sections to determine if an individual wants comfort care only or if they want particular medical interventions, including CPR, artificially administered food and fluids, or hospitalization, and allows a person to attach additional specific information regarding medical interventions that the person may or may not want. In Arizona, a living will does not need to be notarized, but it must be witnessed; some states do require notarization, so if you travel out of state often, you may want to have your form notarized and/or look at the specific requirements for a living will in the state to which you will be traveling.

Medical Power of Attorney / Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare

The Medical Power of Attorney form allows you to choose a person or ‘agent’ to make healthcare decisions for you, if you are unable to make them for yourself. It is important to communicate your wishes to this person and to choose a person who you feel will adequately represent you during times of great stress. If you do not choose a Medical Power of Attorney and are unable to make healthcare decisions, a default surrogate decision maker will be elected. Per Arizona law the order to determine a surrogate is as follows:

Your spouse, unless you and your spouse are legally separated.
Your adult child. If there is more than one adult child, the health care providers will seek the consent of a majority of the children who are available for consultation.
Your parent.
Your domestic partner.
Your brother or sister.
Your close friend.
If none of the above are available, the attending physician will consult with an ethics committee or with a second physician to make your medical decisions.

PreHospital Medical Care Directive / Do Not Resuscitate Order

The PreHospital Medical Care Directive, DNR, or ‘orange form’ in Arizona alerts medical professionals that you do not wish to be resuscitated if your heart or breathing stops. When this form is not present, medical professionals are required to resuscitate a person and bring them to the hospital. In order to honor a persons wishes

to not be resuscitated but rather to be kept comfortable this orange form is posted in the home, although, a person may also choose to not be resuscitated in the hospital as well.

The exact wording on this form is as follows:

In the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest, I refuse any resuscitation measures including cardiac compression, endotracheal intubation and other advanced airway management, artificial ventilation, defibrillation, administration of advanced cardiac life support drugs and related emergency medical procedures.

Further Resources:

There are many excellent resources for completing your Advance Directives, here are just a few:

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