Tag: Advanced Medical Directives

Studies continue to show that the how and when Americans would prefer to pass away, is not how they actually pass away. That needs to change.

Most of the time, the medical profession treats its patients in keeping with what the patients want. If someone has a broken leg, for example, then doctors set the leg, put a cast on it and let it heal.

That is what people want.

When we get sick, doctors give us the best known treatment for whatever disease we have and everyone is satisfied. However, this does not necessarily hold true when people are at the end of their lives.

What medical professionals do at the end of their patients’ lives, is not what studies suggest patients necessarily want, as The New York Times reports in “We’re Bad at Death. Can We Talk?”

The disconnect at the end of life between doctors and patients, stems from the fact that doctors are trained to do everything they can to sustain life. On the other hand, most patients would prefer to be let go with the least amount of pain and discomfort.

This leads to terminally ill patients being placed in intensive care units on artificial life support, when they would prefer to be placed in palliative care or return home so that they can pass away in peace.

This is something that needs to be addressed by the medical community.

There is something you can do about it for yourself. You can get advanced medical directives to let doctors know what you want, when you are terminally ill. At Profit Law Firm, we prepare Advanced Medical Directives as part of basic estate planning.

Reference: New York Times (May 10, 2017) “We’re Bad at Death. Can We Talk?”

How, when and where people pass away has changed in the last 100 years. Evidence suggests that people are not entirely happy about that.

A long time ago, most people passed away in their homes. There were not many hospitals or hospices for people to go to, when they were terminally ill.

There are now many of those places and most people pass away in some sort of facility.

That has been both good and bad.

People generally like that they do not die as young and from as many diseases as people used to, but most people would still rather die in their homes than in a facility, as the Economist reports in "How to have a better death."

In fact, the majority of people are not happy that they cannot choose when and where to die.  People are often given life-saving treatment by doctors that they do not want.

It is important that people take some matters they can control into their own hands.  Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia and other states allow people to choose living wills that specify when and what type of treatment, if any, they should receive, under different circumstances.  These states also allow people to designate a person who can make personal healthcare decisions for them, if they are unable to do so, for example if they are in a coma.

Everyone should have advanced medical directives, at a minimum, that dictate what procedures doctors can and cannot use to prolong their lives. Maryland living wills are called advance medical directives and they allow people to control healthcare decisions in catastrophic situations, where they can't communicate.

Reference: Economist (April 29, 2017) "How to have a better death."