An Advance Health Care Directive, also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, medical directive or advance decision, is a legal document in which a person specifies what actions should be taken for their health if they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves because of illness or incapacity. It only becomes effective under the circumstances delineated in the document and allows one to either appoint a health care agent (also known as “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care,” “Health Care Proxy,” or “attorney-in-fact”), who will have the legal authority to make health care decisions for the individual if he or she is no longer able to speak for him- or herself, or prepare instructions for health care, which allows one to make specific written instructions for his or her future health care in the event of any situation that he or she becomes incapacitated It outlines the individual’s wishes about life-sustaining medical treatment if he or she is terminally ill or permanently unconscious, for example.
