As a nurse, Kim Von Asten of Dousman, Wis., knows it’s important to document how you want to be cared for at the end of your life, or when you can no longer speak for yourself because of a major ...

States generally allow a person (principal) to appoint another person (agent) to make health care decisions, receive protected health information, or both on the principal’s behalf. In many states, ...

It’s a common hope that most people share: that their end-of-life wishes will be respected if something happened and they couldn’t make their own health care decisions. Yet only about a third of ...

Two main types of advance directives are living wills and healthcare power of attorney. These are legal documents that outline a person’s preferences regarding major medical decisions. An advance ...

The end of life sometimes begins with an advance directive. Learning about advance directives now may make things easier for your loved ones later, when they're in a hospital room trying to ...

Dear Doctor: I recently read about advance directives that deal only with dementia. Is there some benefit to those over the more traditional directives? If so, how do I go about creating one? Dear ...

Christy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and ...

There are a number of assumptions that the legitimacy of a particular application of an advance directive appears to operate under. First, there is the assumption that the author of the advance ...

An advance healthcare directive provides clear instructions for family members, reducing confusion and stress when making medical decisions on your behalf in the event that you are unable to make them ...