1. What is the primary objective of
Advance Directives?
[a] They offer clear and convincing evidence by which patients
who have lost their physical or mental capability to rationally communicate can
provide informed consent as to their health care wishes with a designated Agent
to administer these wishes.2.
Why are an incapacitated patient's wishes ignored?
[a] It is estimated that only 15-20% of the general population have
executed Advance Directives expressing their health care wishes.
[b] The failure of attending physicians or health care providers to be
aware that an Advance Directive exists.
[c] Conscience policies of physicians and health care facilities.
[d] The few Advance Directives that do exist are improperly prepared and
are not enforceable in their own state and not recognized in other states.
3. Can "conscience policies"
[religious beliefs or moral convictions] of a physician or health care provider
be authoritative and determinative of a patient's treatments?
[a] No! A basic right of a competent adult patient is the right to
make decisions as to his health care treatment.
4. But what if the patient is no
longer communicable and can not express his health care wishes?
[a] If the patient has established, prior to his disability, clear
and convincing evidence of his health care instructions the patient or his
designated agent's wishes will prevail.
5. But what if the physician or
health care provider declines to carry out the patient's instructions?
[a] A refusing physician or health care provider must immediately
inform the patient or his Proxy of their declination to follow instructions.
[b] The physician or health care provider must promptly make
every reasonable effort to transfer the patient to a facility that will
accommodate the patient's wishes.
6. Does a patient or his estate
have recourse for unwanted health care services?
[a] A physician or health care provider that performs unwanted
health care services commits an assault for which they are liable for battery,
negligence or malpractice actions.
7. Should you have both a Living
Will and Health Care Proxy?
[a] Yes, A Living Will documents in clear and
convincing language your health care wishes and the Proxy document empowers your
designated agent to make medical decisions that you could have made if you were
not disabled.
[b] SANCTUARY is the proponent of the concept that it is
paradoxical to have two separate and independent documents when the subject
matter of each is interwoven, correlated and mutually dependent. That is the
reason that SANCTUARY has combined both documents.
8. How will a physician or health
care provider know that I have executed an Advance Directive?
[a] In the event the patient can not communicate SANCTUARY provides all
of its registrants with a personalized, ID card, designed [wallet
sized] to be carried in person, with a registration number and phone numbers
that can corroborate that the holder has executed an Advance Directive and has
designated a Proxy.
[b] SANCTUARY maintains a Central Registry with a computerized listing of
all of its registrants and their designated Proxy with their phone number and
exclusive registration number.
[c] SANCTUARY provides all of these services free of charge and only
suggests a voluntary tax deductible donation to defray its expenses.
9. How many copies of my executed
Living Will do I need to distribute?
[a] NONE, SANCTUARY provides the declarant with the original, to be
discussed with his PROXY who is to be advised where it is being placed for
readily access and safekeeping.
[b] Inasmuch as, in time of need, your attending physician or health care
provider can not be determined in advance with certainty, SANCTUARY prefaces its
document to apply to ANY attending physician or ANY attending
health care provider.
10. Where should I keep my
original executed document?
[a] SANCTUARY suggests that since an executed Living Will is a legal document it
should be kept in a secure place at home where it is readily accessible to the
Proxy.
[b] SANCTUARY suggests the Proxy, when the necessity arises, to take the original
to the attending health care facility and require that the facility make a copy
of it and note on the patient's record the existence of the document, and return
the original to the Proxy.
11. What if I am out of state
when an emergency arises.
[a] SANCTUARY is the proponent that the supreme law of the land which is
embodied in federal, statutory, legislative and court decisions decrees that a
properly executed Living Will should be recognized in all 50 states. The law
mandates that every competent adult has the right to make autonomous health care
decisions determining the medical treatments he wishes to receive providing that
there is CLEAR AND CONVINCING evidence of the individuals health care
wishes.
12. Is SANCTUARY'S document
suitable for everyone?
[a] No. SANCTUARY seeks to encourage and recommends communication among you,
your family, doctor, attorney and spiritual advisor.
[b] Only, if after thorough discussion, it is your wish that in the event of
a tragedy, rendering you terminally incapacitated, with no reasonable expectance
of recovery, you desire to express in clear and convincing
language that you be administered pain alleviating medication, treatments
and procedures to minimize suffering and pain and that you be allowed to die and
not be kept alive by artificial means or heroic devices.
* PERSPECTIVE: SANCTUARY seeks to inform and not
advise, but to encourage communication among the parties and does not, in any
way, propose to counsel supplement, substitute or infringe upon the authority
of your family and their emotional involvement, your doctor with his
professional expertise, your attorney with whom you have the protection of uncompromised loyalty nor your spiritual or religious advisor with his moral
precepts.
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