Connecticut elder law attorneys help seniors to address issues that are most important to them as they plan for their future. While you may want to focus on making plans for a happy and secure retirement and considering how to achieve other positive goals, it is also essential that you plan ahead in case disaster strikes. If something happens to you and you get seriously hurt or badly injured, you and your family will be in a much better situation if you have made plans for what should happen when you become incapacitated.
For many people, one of their greatest fears is that they will become incapacitated, have no quality of life left, and be kept alive by machines. If you do not want this to happen to you, you should work with Hartford elder law attorneys at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates to find out about your options for protecting yourself from being kept alive when you wouldn’t want to be.
Taking action to express your preferences on the sensitive life-and-death issue of when to use extraordinary measures to stay alive is also important to spare your family a potentially painful decision about whether to pull the plug.
What Can You Do If You Don’t Want Extraordinary Measures to Keep You Alive?
If you do not want extraordinary measures to keep you alive, you need to make this clear by making an incapacity plan using the right legal tools. In particular, you will need to use advanced directives for healthcare to express your preferences.
There are many different tools that give you the ability to express your wishes on medical care that will be provided to you if you are unable to communicate your wishes. You can use a living will to specify specific kinds of care you will and won’t receive based on the severity of your condition. For example, you can express preferences specifically on whether you want to kept alive on a machine that breathes for you and whether you want a feeding tube to be used to administer nutrition.
You can also create a DNR, or Do Not Resuscitate, which allows you to decline virtually all emergency measures that care providers would use to save your life, and you can name a healthcare proxy who makes decisions if your advanced plans don’t address a particular situation. A healthcare proxy should be someone who you trust who you are confident will act upon what you have expressed about quantity versus quality of life and other preferences you have expressed about your care in an emergency.
The person you choose as your healthcare proxy should be someone you trust. This person should understand your values, respect your wishes, and be willing to act according to your preferences about quality of life, medical care, and end-of-life decisions.
Take the Next Step
To schedule a consultation at our Westport, CT estate planning office, call 860-548-1000. This same number can also be used to set up an appointment at our Glastonbury location, or you can reach out through our contact form.
If you would like to learn more before scheduling a formal consultation, we invite you to attend one of our upcoming complimentary seminars. These events are a helpful way to better understand your planning options and feel more prepared for your next step. Visit our seminar schedule page to view upcoming dates and details.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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