4. Health Care Directives
A “health care directive” permits the person(s) you designate to make critical
medical decisions on your behalf, often including the ultimate decisions
about your medical care and even withholding food or water under certain
circumstances.
The health care directive is also designed to incorporate your specific
wishes about the types of medical care you want or don’t want, as well
as your philosophy about life, death, and the hereafter. In the health
care directive, you can identify the circumstances, such as brain death,
in which you authorize the removal of life support equipment, and the
limitation of care only to pain reduction. You can also specify your
wishes as to organ donation. Like a power of attorney, a health care
directive can always be revoked by you – assuming you are not already in
a crisis situation and lack capacity to communicate your wishes.
One critical aspect of the health care directive is your ability to
explain your wishes for the disposal of your remains upon your death.
For some people, it is important that they be cremated (or not), buried
in a specific area, or have their ashes spread in a certain location, or
have other expectations met. The directive is one place to make these
wishes clear. A health care directive can be particularly important if
your partner and your biological family have different ideas about what
is proper after your death. Having laid out your wishes, the person you
designate in your health care directive is authorized by the directive
to carry those wishes out.
A health care directive must either be notarized or signed by
two witnesses in order to be valid.
2007 legislative changes: In 2007, the Minnesota Legislature
approved OutFront Minnesota-supported changes to statutes relating to
health-care directives. Now, a designated health-care agent is
guaranteed the right to visit a patient in virtually all circumstances,
regardless of whether or not the patient needs someone to make decisions
on their behalf. Additionally, health-care facilities now must offer
patients the opportunity to complete such a designation, meaning that
conscious patients are now able to identify their partner, designate
them as a health-care agent, and (with few exceptions) guarantee their
ability to visit the patient in the facility.
For more information on health care directives, and to download the
forms, please visit
Hospice Minnesota.
This information is not intended to constitute or replace legal
advice: always consult your attorney before drafting or signing
documents which affect your legal rights. If you need a referral to a
GLBT-friendly attorney in your area, please contact the OutFront
Minnesota Legal Program at 612-822-0127 ext. 230 or .
Page 1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7 |
