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How to Write a Living Will

Guide for How to Write a Living Will

The purpose of a living will is to ensure that, when you can no longer discuss your medical situation with your doctor or your loved ones, you are still taken care of according to your own directions. That means that if you’d like to be intubated and kept alive even after brain damage becomes apparent and your hopes of survival decrease, this can be achieved. It also means that if you would prefer being allowed to pass away with dignity once extraordinary means need to be taken to keep you alive, you can also ensure that will happen. 

Because of the incredible importance of living wills, millions of Americans would like to know how to create a living will, far more sadly than have yet had the chance to make one. Don’t let something happen to you without letting your wishes for your medical treatment be known. Read this guide to learn how to write a living will.

Qualifiers

Before you learn how to create a living will, you should make sure that you qualify to make one and that the living will you make will be valid. In order to make a living will you must meet the following qualifications:

• 18 years or older

• Of sound mind

• Able to write your own name (some exceptions exist depending on the individual’s situation)

• Able to find at least two witnesses to the living will

Contents of a Living Will

The first step once you know you want to know how to write a living will is learning what is in a living well. Usually, they contain stipulations about under what circumstances a person would no longer want life-sustaining medical treatment. Many dictate how painful treatment may be before it is denied and whether life should be continued if severe and permanent disabilities are inevitable.

Finding Help for How to Create a Living Will

The truth is that if you’d like to know how to write a living will, you’re not going to be able to do it entirely on your own. For it to binding, you’ll need to document signed by at least two witnesses and a notary public. In addition, most individuals find it beneficial to locate outside support. Here are a few places they’ve traditionally looked:

• Find a Lawyer: This one’s obvious but the most important. It’s an attorney’s job to create documents and contracts such as living wills, and employing an attorney to help you learn how to write a living will can only result a high quality living will that should be able to stand up against any challenges. The principle downside that lawyer fees can be very costly. Still, you may want to call your state bar’s lawyer referral service to help you local a lawyer for this purpose right away.

• Use a legal contract service: There are many companies that help you prepare legal documents online or through the mail. You’ll have to put in all the important information about your legal stipulations, and the form will be approved by legal experts and then sent back to you as an official document. The downside is that you still need to learn how to write a living will very well, and the possibility that you make a mistake could mean the will won’t be binding.

• Use a senior center or hospital service: Many of these centers have regular visits from attorneys and other experts that help to teach seniors about how to create a living well and who help them to do it for little or no money.

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