Advances in medical technologies, current court rulings and emerging political trends have brought with them a quantity of life-and-death possibilities which several have never ever prior to viewed as. The looming prospect of legalized doctor-assisted suicide is one particular such selection which severely erodes the inherent worth and dignity of human life. The considerably-publicized efforts of particular doctors to deliver carbon monoxide poisoning or prescribe lethal drugs for their terminally ill patients constitute euthanasia. So may possibly the removal of specific life-sustaining treatments from a patient who is not in a terminal condition. Euthanasia and willful suicide, in any kind, are offenses against life they ought to be and are rejected by the vast majority of U.S. states.

Nevertheless, people faced with these hard dilemmas should be created aware that there are morally-appropriate, life-affirming legal solutions readily available to them. One such solution, for Catholics and others, can be a “health care power of lawyer” and “living will.” South Carolina State law allows you to appoint somebody as your agent to make well being care decisions for you in the event you shed the capacity to decide for oneself. This appointment is executed by indicates of a “overall health care energy of lawyer” type, a model for which can be obtained from your lawyer.

A well being care power of lawyer can be a morally and legally acceptable indicates of protecting your wishes, values and religious beliefs when faced with a significant illness or debilitating accident. Accordingly, for persons wishing to execute health care powers of attorney, see the following instructions and guidance from the authoritative teachings and traditions of several religious faiths.

The intent of the overall health care power of attorney law is to permit adults to delegate their God-given, 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 overall health care therapy. Nor does it legalize or market euthanasia, suicide or assisted suicide. The overall health care energy of lawyer law makes it possible for you, or any competent adult, to designate an “agent,” such as a family member or close pal, to make well being care choices for you if you drop the capacity to determine for oneself in the future. This is accomplished by completing a wellness care energy of lawyer form.

You…

o Have the right to make all of your own wellness care choices although capable of carrying out so. The wellness care power of lawyer only becomes powerful when and if you turn out to be incapacitated by way of illness or accident.

o Have the ideal to challenge your doctor’s determination that you are not capable of producing your own medical decisions.

o CAN give specific guidelines about your medical remedy to your agent and can forbid your agent from creating certain treatment decisions. To do so, you just need to have to communicate your wishes, beliefs and directions to your agent. Instructions about any specific treatment options or procedures which you desire or do not want below specific circumstances can also be written in your wellness care energy of lawyer and/or offered in a separate living will.

o Can revoke your overall health care power of attorney or the appointment of your agent at any time when competent.

o Might not designate as your agent an administrator or employee of the hospital, nursing property or mental hygiene facility to which you are admitted, unless they are connected by blood, marriage or adoption. 1996

Your agent…

o Can begin producing choices for you only when your medical professional determines that you are no longer able to make health care choices for oneself.

hipaa compliant email make any and all wellness care choices for you, including treatment options for physical or mental situations and decisions concerning life-sustaining procedures, unless you limit the power of your agent.

o Will not have authority to make decisions about the artificial provision of nutrition and hydration (nourishment and water via feeding tubes) unless he or she clearly knows that these decisions are in accord with your wishes about these measures.

o Is protected from legal liability when acting in great faith.

o Will have to base his or her decisions on your wishes or, if your wishes can not be reasonably ascertained, in your “finest interests.” The agent’s decisions will take precedence more than the choices of all other persons, regardless of family relationships.