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Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care...

Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions

Category:

Power of Attorney - Healthcare - Living Wills

State:

Delaware

Control #:

DE-P021

Format:

Instant download

This form is part of a form package!

Included in the Power of Attorney Forms Package, which provides options for financial, healthcare, and child custody decisions.

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About this form

The Statutory Advance Health Care Directive is a legally recognized document in Delaware that allows individuals to outline their healthcare preferences. This form empowers you to make decisions about your medical treatment preferences, including end-of-life care, appointing a healthcare agent, and expressing your desires regarding anatomical gifts. Unlike a standard living will, this directive integrates components of a power of attorney specifically for health care, ensuring that your wishes are respected even when you may not be able to communicate them.

Main sections of this form

Part 1: Designation of a healthcare agent to make decisions on your behalf.
Part 2: Specific instructions regarding end-of-life medical care and pain management.
Part 3: Instructions for anatomical gifts after your death.
Part 4: Designation of a primary physician responsible for your healthcare.
Witness signatures required to validate the document.

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When this form is needed

This form should be used when you want to ensure your healthcare preferences are known and respected in future medical situations. It is particularly important if you have a chronic illness, are undergoing major surgery, or simply wish to have peace of mind regarding your medical decisions in case you become incapacitated or unable to communicate.

Who should use this form

Individuals aged 18 and over wishing to outline their medical treatment preferences.
Those who want to appoint someone to make healthcare decisions for them.
Anyone wishing to express their views on anatomical gifts after passing.
People looking to clarify their desires regarding end-of-life care.

How to complete this form

Designate your healthcare agent and any alternate agents in Part 1.
Complete Part 2 by indicating your preferences for life-sustaining treatments and pain management.
If you wish to make anatomical gifts, fill out Part 3 accordingly.
Designate your primary physician in Part 4, if desired.
Sign and date the form in the presence of two witnesses who are eligible to sign.

Notarization guidance

In most cases, this form does not require notarization. However, some jurisdictions or signing circumstances might. US Legal Forms offers online notarization powered by Notarize, accessible 24/7 for a quick, remote process.

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Make edits, fill in missing information, and update formatting in US Legal Forms—just like you would in MS Word.

Download a copy, print it, send it by email, or mail it via USPS—whatever works best for your next step.

Sign and collect signatures with our SignNow integration. Send to multiple recipients, set reminders, and more. Go Premium to unlock E-Sign.

If this form requires notarization, complete it online through a secure video call—no need to meet a notary in person or wait for an appointment.

We protect your documents and personal data by following strict security and privacy standards.

Common mistakes

Not signing the form in front of required witnesses.
Failing to clearly outline treatment preferences in Part 2.
Choosing witnesses with conflicts of interest, such as family members.
Leaving sections of the form incomplete, causing ambiguity in your wishes.

Why use this form online

Convenience of completing the form at your own pace from anywhere.
Edit the document to suit your specific wishes before printing.
Access to professionally drafted templates crafted by licensed attorneys.
Immediate availability without the need for appointments with legal professionals.

Legal use & context

This form complies with Delaware law, specifically the Delaware Code Title 16.
Once executed, the directive must be followed by healthcare providers as long as it is valid.
The form can be revoked or replaced at any time, reflecting changes in your wishes.

Summary of main points

The Statutory Advance Health Care Directive is crucial for managing your healthcare preferences.
Ensure all parts are completed accurately and witnessed to maintain legal validity.
This directive can provide peace of mind, knowing your medical wishes are respected.

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FAQ

Yes, a healthcare surrogate can override a living will under certain conditions, especially if they believe a different course of action aligns better with your wishes. It's crucial that the selected surrogate fully understands your values and preferences, as their role is to advocate for your care. However, the Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions can help clarify the surrogate's authority and ensure they make decisions in your best interest. Utilizing platforms like US Legal Forms can guide you in properly setting up these legal documents.

A living will can be overridden by a court decision or a legally appointed healthcare surrogate if specific circumstances arise. For instance, if medical professionals determine that changes to your health situation require different treatment than what is laid out in the living will, those changes may take priority. Moreover, state laws, including the provisions in the Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions, may allow for such overrides. Ensuring all documents comply with state laws is essential for clarity.

One major issue with living wills is that they may not clearly express your wishes in every situation. As medical technology advances, certain scenarios may arise that your living will does not address. Consequently, healthcare providers might struggle to interpret your intentions. The Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions provides a more comprehensive framework for ensuring your preferences are followed.

A living will is a type of advance directive specifically addressing your wishes regarding medical treatment at the end of life, while an advance directive encompasses broader instructions, including appointing a health care proxy. The Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions combines these elements, offering a comprehensive guide for your health care choices. Understanding these distinctions helps you communicate your desires clearly, ensuring your preferences are respected during critical times.

To complete a Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions, you need to clearly outline your healthcare preferences in writing. You can use a template for the directive, which helps ensure you include all necessary details. After filling it out, make sure to sign it in front of a witness and, if required, get it notarized. This completed document guides your healthcare providers in making decisions that reflect your wishes.

Generally, a living will does not include a health care proxy; these are distinct legal documents. The Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions encompasses both components, allowing you to articulate your medical care preferences and appoint someone to make decisions on your behalf. Having this comprehensive document helps provide clarity to healthcare professionals and your loved ones. Using USLegalForms can simplify the process of creating both a living will and health care proxy.

The main drawback of a living will is its inability to cover all medical scenarios that may arise. A Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions provides guidelines for specific situations but may lack clarity in unexpected circumstances. This limitation means that healthcare providers may interpret your wishes differently. To better ensure your preferences are followed, think about including a health care proxy.

In general, living wills do not designate a health care proxy; they primarily articulate your medical treatment preferences when you cannot communicate them. A Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions can designate a health care proxy while also outlining your treatment desires. It's vital to understand that having both documents ensures your wishes are respected. Consider using USLegalForms to easily create a comprehensive directive.

A living will is a specific type of advance directive that focuses solely on your wishes regarding medical treatment at the end of life. Meanwhile, an advance care directive, like the Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions, encompasses living wills and may also include provisions for appointing a health care proxy. Essentially, a living will provides detailed instructions, while an advance directive offers a broader framework for your health care planning.

The Delaware advance directive, officially known as the Delaware Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions, enables individuals to outline their health care preferences in advance. This legal document allows you to specify the type of medical interventions you want or do not want, as well as appoint a standby guardian to make decisions for you. It serves to ensure that your health care choices are respected, even when you are not able to voice them.

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Statutory Advance Health Care Directive - Health Care, Standby Guardian and Living Will Provisions

STATUTORY REFERENCE

ALL REFERENCES ARE TO THE DELAWARE CODE

ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE (§§ 16-2501 through 16-2518)

An "advance health-care directive" is an individual instruction or a power of attorney for health care, or both.

An "agent" is an individual designated in a power of attorney for health care to make a health-care decision for the individual granting the power.

"Artificial nutrition and hydration" is supplying food and water through a conduit, such as a tube or intravenous line where the recipient is not required to chew or swallow voluntarily, including, but not limited to, nasogastric tubes, gastrostomies, jejunostomies and intravenous infusions. Artificial nutrition and hydration does not include assisted feeding, such as spoon or bottle feeding.

"Capacity" is an individual's ability to understand the significant benefits, risks and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health-care decision.

A "declarant" is a person who executes an advance health care directive.

"Health care" is any care, treatment, service or procedure to maintain, diagnose or otherwise affect an individual's physical or mental condition.

A "health-care decision" is a decision made by an individual or the individual's agent, surrogate or guardian regarding the individual's health care, including:

Selection and discharge of health-care providers and institutions;

Acceptance or refusal of diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, programs of medication and orders not to resuscitate; and

Directions to provide, withhold or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care.

An "individual instruction" is an individual's direction concerning a health-care decision for the individual.

A "life sustaining procedure" is any medical procedure, treatment or intervention that:

Utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a spontaneous vital function; and

Is of such a nature as to afford a patient no reasonable expectation of recovery from a terminal condition or permanent unconsciousness.

"Medically ineffective treatment" is treatment that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a medical procedure will not:

Prevent or reduce the deterioration of the health of an individual; or

Prevent the impending death of an individual.

A"power of attorney for health care" means the designation of an agent to make health-care decisions for the individual granting the power.

A "qualifying condition" is the existence of one or more of the following conditions in the patient, certified in writing in the patient's medical record by the attending physician and by at least one other physician who, when the condition in question is "permanently unconscious" shall be a board certified neurologist and/or neurosurgeon:

"Terminal condition" is any disease, illness or condition sustained by any human being for which there is no reasonable medical expectation of recovery and which, as a medical probability, will result in the death of such human being regardless of the use or discontinuance of medical treatment implemented for the purpose of sustaining life or the life processes.

"Permanently unconscious" or "permanent unconsciousness" is a medical condition that has existed for at least four weeks and that has been diagnosed in accordance with currently accepted medical standards and with reasonable medical certainty as total and irreversible loss of consciousness and capacity for interaction with the environment. The term includes, without limitation, a persistent vegetative state or irreversible coma.

A "surrogate" is an adult individual or individuals who has capacity, is reasonably available, is willing to make health care decisions, including decisions to initiate, refuse to initiate, continue or discontinue the use of a life sustaining procedure on behalf of a patient who lacks capacity, and is identified by the attending physician in accordance with this chapter as the person or persons who are to make those decisions.

An individual, legally adult, who is mentally competent, has the right to refuse medical orsurgical treatment if such refusal is not contrary to existing public health laws.

An adult who is mentally competent may:

Give an individual instruction. The instruction may be limited to take effect only if a specified condition arises; and/or

Execute a power of attorney for health care, which may authorize the agent to make any health-care decision the principal could have made while having capacity.

An advance health-care directive must be:

In writing;

Signed by the declarant or by another person in the declarant's presence and at the declarant's expressed direction;

Dated;

Signed in the presence of two or more adult witnesses, neither of whom:

Is related to the declarant by blood, marriage or adoption;

Is entitled to any portion of the estate of the declarant under any will or trust of the declarant or codicil thereto then existing nor, at the time of the executing of the power of attorney for health care, is entitled thereto by operation of law then existing;

Has, at the time of the execution of the advance health care directive, a present or inchoate claim against any portion of the estate of the declarant;

Has a direct financial responsibility for the declarant's medical care; or

Has a controlling interest in or is an operator or an employee of a health care institution at which the declarant is a patient or resident.

Each witness to the advance health-care directive must state in writing that he or she is not prohibited from being a witness.

An advance health-care directive becomes effective only upon a determination that a declarant lacks capacity, and when the advance health-care directive is to be applied to the providing, withholding or withdrawal of a life sustaining procedure, it becomes effective only upon a determination that the declarant lacks capacity and has a qualifying condition.

An advance health-care directive ceases to be effective upon a determination that the declarant has recovered capacity.

A determination that an individual lacks or has recovered capacity that affects an individual instruction or the authority of an agent must be made by the primary physician or other physician(s) as specified in a written health-care directive.

A power of attorney for health care may include a provision accommodating an individual's religious or moral beliefs. That provision may designate a person other than a physician to certify in a notarized document that the individual lacks or has recovered capacity.

An agent must make a health-care decision to treat, withdraw or withhold treatment on behalf of the patient after consultation with the attending physician or with the person other than a physician designated by the principal and in accordance with the principal's individual instructions, if any, and other wishes to the extent known to the agent. If the patient's instructions or wishes are not known or clearly applicable, the agent's decision must conform as closely as possible to what the patient would have done or intended under the circumstances.

Unless related to the principal by blood, marriage or adoption, an agent may not have a controlling interest in or be an operator or employee of a residential long term health-care institution at which the principal is receiving care.

A written advance health-care directive may include the individual's nomination of a guardian of the person.

A life sustaining procedure may not be withheld or withdrawn from a patient known to be pregnant, so long as it is probable that the fetus will develop to be viable outside the uterus with the continued application of a life sustaining procedure.

An individual who is mentally competent may revoke all or part of an advance health-care directive:

By a signed writing; or

In any manner that communicates an intent to revoke done in the presence of two competent persons, 1 of whom is a health care provider.

Any revocation that is not in writing must be memorialized in writing and signed and dated by both witnesses.

A decree of annulment, divorce, dissolution of marriage or a filing of a petition for divorce revokes a previous designation of a spouse as an agent unless otherwise specified in the decree or in a power of attorney for health care.

An advance health-care directive that conflicts with an earlier advance health-care directive revokes the earlier directive to the extent of the conflict.

An individual is presumed to have capacity to make a health-care decision and to give or revoke an advance health-care directive.

A copy of an advance health-care directive or revocation of an advance health-care directive, has the same effect as the original.

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