What is an Advance Directive?
An advance directive is a legal paper that tells doctors and health care providers how you want them to carry out medical decisions you have made for future crisis care, even if you cannot communicate these decisions for yourself. If you have an advance directive in your medical records, your doctor and other health care providers can take care of you based on your wishes as stated in the advance directive.

There are two basic kinds of advance directives:

A living will, the more common type, tells your doctor or health care provider in writing what type of medical care you want or do not want if you should become unable to make these decisions for yourself.
A durable power of attorney for health care decisions or a health care proxy allows you to name someone, such as a parent, husband, wife, daughter, son or close friend, to act on your behalf if you are unable to make medical decisions for yourself. It is important to ask this person if he or she is willing to act as your "agent" and to talk about what treatments you would want and those you would not want, as well as your short- and long-term goals and values.
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