The vast majority of our population lack
the basic understanding of their legal rights to express and spell out their
health care wishes in an enforceable document. It is the common belief that
directives are ineffectual, too complicated and too expensive!
It has become the common practice to
require two [2] health care documents: [1]A LIVING WILL
a/k/a an Advance
Directive and [2] a HEALTH CARE PROXY a/k/a Durable Power of Attorney for Health
Care etc. Most of these existing written directives are improperly prepared and
are not enforceable in their own state and in addition are not recognized in
other states.
Despite the existence of directives some
physicians and health care providers are reluctant to discontinue artificial and
heroic measures to sustain life because of ethical constraints as well as their
fear of susceptibility to malpractice claims.
Physicians and health care providers are
often unaware that a health care directive exists and given their alternatives
the providers choose to ignore the patient's wishes.
It is incontrovertible that the supreme
law of the land which is embodied in federal, statutory, legislative and court
decisions ordains that every competent adult has the right to make autonomous
health care decisions determining the medical treatments he wishes to receive
providing there is CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE of that individual's
health care wishes. It has also been held that every competent adult has the
right to designate a surrogate empowered to act in his behalf if such declarant
subsequently becomes incapacitated and is no longer capable of communicating
rationally.
The Patient Self-Determination Act
[PSDA] enacted Dec. 1, 1991
To briefly summarize: it requires all
health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funds to provide and
display written information advising patients as to their rights to make
decisions concerning their health care treatments. In addition patients
are to
be informed as to the purposes and advantages of executing Advance Directives as
well as having a written designation for a health care surrogate in the event
the patient is subsequently unable to rationally communicate his own wishes.
Furthermore each facility must prominently record in the patient's medical
records whether or not the patient has executed an advance directive.
SANCTUARY is the proponent of the
concept that it is disingenuous, paradoxical and irrational to have two separate
and independent documents [1.] LIVING WILL & [2.]
HEALTH CARE PROXY when the
subject matter of each is interwoven, correlated and mutually dependent.
SANCTUARY has combined a Living Will and Health Care Proxy into a
comprehensive, copyrighted four [4] page legal document intended to be valid in
every state that not only has the required "high standard of proof of
the patient's wishes" but in addition provides the declarant with a
personalized lD card whereby corroboration that the holder has executed a Living
Will can be confirmed by contacting SANCTUARY'S Central Registry.
Sanctuary provides all these services free of charge and only
suggests a tax deductible donation to defray its expenses.
SANCTUARY was organized in 1993
and despite limited publicity it has issued thousands of its copyrighted
Directive and receives daily inquiries. To date no attending physician or health
care facility or provider has refused to adhere to the precepts of our
directive,
when it is properly executed, but rather to the contrary everyone has expressed
commendation and gratitude. Former N.Y. Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco in his
letter to us October 30, 1997 stated "The issue of the quality of one's
life is an area which I am sure you will agree the public must be more fully
educated in. Through programs such as your own, we are beginning to break
through the silence and teach our residents that they can die with comfort and
dignity."
FACTS
