Our team can assist you with making living wills, health care surrogates, do-not-resuscitate orders, medical power of attorneys, and other end-of-life plans. We encourage our clients to think about:
Who is the person I want to make care decisions for me when I cannot do so myself?
What is the kind of medical treatment I want and/or don't want?
How comfortable do I want to be?
How do I want people to treat me?
What do I want my loved ones to know?
On the personal side, a good estate plan includes, at the very least, the execution of a living will and the designation of health care surrogates. In Florida, a living will (not to be confused with a person's legal will or law will and testament) states very clearly your unequivocal intentions regarding the withholding of medical treatment if you were to be incapacitated with a terminal condition, in an end-stage condition, or in a persistent vegetative state. A living will makes your wishes known regarding the use of extraordinary measures to keep you alive in those specified instances. With a properly executed living will, your health care providers will know exactly what your wishes are regarding the use of life-sustaining measures, thus reducing the burden on your family, loved ones, and health care providers at a very difficult, emotional, and stressful time.
It is equally important to have a properly executed health care surrogate designation in Florida. In designating a health care surrogate, you make the choice of the person who is empowered to make health care decisions for you in the event that you are unable to do so. As with the living will, the benefits of having a properly executed health care surrogate include reducing the burden of medical decision-making on your family, loved ones, and health care providers at a most difficult and emotional time.
Please allow the Law Office of Ronald J. Conte
to help you with these simple yet important estate planning tools. Call Ron Conte
today for more information regarding living wills and health care surrogate designations. Attorney Conte understands that it is difficult and sometimes emotional to think about the issues and questions that living wills and health care surrogates present, and he is prepared to help you in a respectful and sensitive manner to address these questions and to have the proper documents in place should they ever become necessary.