In case of serious illness, make decisions about your medical treatment with a Living Will.
Nowadays, there are many treatments which offer
patients with serious or terminal illnesses the chance to live
longer, especially if it will not give you an acceptable quality of life. However, in some cases, these treatments may offer little
or no chance of full recovery and they may have side effects
that could be considered worse than the illness or leave the
person in a condition he or she would find unbearable.
You may feel strongly that you do not want
to go through this treatment to make you live longer. However,
in the future you may not be physically or mentally able to
make the decision or talk to your doctors about what you want,
for example, if you were in a deep coma or suffered serious
dementia.
What is a Living Will?
A Living Will (often known as an 'Advance Directive’
or 'Advance Refusal’) allows you to state which treatments you
would or would not want if you became seriously ill in the future
and could not say what you wanted to happen.
Some people confuse the issue of refusing
treatment under a Living Will with voluntary euthanasia. The
two issues, although related, are separate. If you make a Living
Will you are asking doctors not to give you certain medical
treatments. Voluntary euthanasia is when you ask the doctor
to deliberately end your life.
Valid Living Wills are legally enforceable.
At the moment there is no statute law governing
Living Wills. However, under common law, a Living Will can be
legally enforced if it meets the following requirements:
1. The person is mentally competent, is not
suffering any mental distress and is over 18 when he or she
makes the Living Will.
2. The person was told all about the nature
and effects of refusing treatment at the time he or she made
the Living Will.
3. The Living Will applies to the patient's current circumstances.
4. The person was not encouraged by someone
else or wrongly influenced when he or she made the Living Will.
5. The Living Will has not been cancelled
either verbally or in writing since it was drawn up.
6. The person is now not mentally able to
make decisions because they are unconscious or unfit
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