Why a Living Will is a Gift to Your Loved Ones

         My guess is that most estate planning attorneys find Living Wills to be the least exciting document they prepare. I’d agree with that. As long as you are familiar with the requirements of your state, they tend to be formulaic. It’s easy to skim over a Living Will discussion when meeting with clients, because it is far more interesting to discuss the various trusts that can be utilized, how to structure an estate plan, who to choose as guardians, how to minimize taxes, how to avoid probate, who you can trust to serve as a financial power of attorney, ect. These are the things that most clients want to discuss.

                 However, there is an underappreciated gift that comes with creating a Living Will. That gift is to your loved ones, and it is significant. Without a Living Will, your family, often your children, might have to decide whether the time has come to withdraw life sustaining medical support. Sometimes they even have to decide whether it is time to withdraw food and hydration so that a parent does not linger in a coma for years. Stop and think for a second about the sheer weight of these decisions. Stated plainly, a child could be asked to decide whether to let their parent die by starvation and/or lack of water. While this is undoubtably a kindness to the parent, who probably doesn’t want to spend the rest of their lives in a coma, it places an incredible burden on your loved ones, who must guess at what you would want. I am sure that no parent wants to place their child(ren) in that horrible position. As a parent myself, I know I would do anything to spare my daughters that burden.

                 Fortunately, there is an easy way to remove this crushing responsibility from your children, and that is to create a Living Will. A Living Will is the expression of your wishes for your end of life care, and is utilized if you are in a terminal condition or a permanently unconscious state. Your doctor, and another doctor who has examined you, must agree to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that you are in one of these two conditions. If so, then the Living Will dictates that no extraordinary measures be taken to prolong your life, and that you only receive comfort care, so that you can die naturally. If you are in a permanently unconscious state, i.e. a vegetative coma with no higher brain functioning, then your Living Will can dictate your wishes if you are in that unfortunate condition. Your children do not have to make that decision, they simply respect your wishes as expressed in your Living Will. They don’t have to live their lives with that burden and possible guilt at pulling the plug on mom or dad. Instead, their final act for their parent is to simply respect their wishes. This is vastly preferable, and is one of the final gifts you can give your children.

    Be proactive and set up your Living Will today, so that your kids are spared this burden. If you have any questions about a Living Will, please reach out to info@LBesq.com, or give us a call to schedule a meeting at 614-334-6850.