According to Colorado Statute, an adult may prepare a written statement known as a Advance Directive to control the health care treatment decisions that can be made on that person behalf
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Medical power of attorney designating a surrogate to make health care decisions for a principal. Legal Helpmate provides Advance Health Care Directive, Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment and DHCPOA |
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An advance health care directive is any written instructions concerning the making of medical treatment decisions on behalf of the person who has provided the instructions. An advance medical directive includes Medical Durable Power of Attorney and Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment executed pursuant to 15-14-506 and 15-18-104 of Colorado Revised Statutes.
Legal Helpmate provides you with two options 1) The Premium Package - Colorado Advance Health Care Directive contains the following documents:
Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment (equivalent of Living Will) In Colorado, a Living Will is called a "Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment" The issuance of a Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment is regulated by the Colorado Medical Treatment Decisions Act.According to Colorado law, any competent adult (“Declarant”) may execute a declaration directing that life sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn if, at some future time, he/she is in a terminal condition and either unconscious or otherwise incompetent to decide whether any medical procedure or intervention should be accepted or rejected. It is the responsibility of the Declarant, or someone acting for him, to submit the declaration to the attending physician for entry in the Declarant's medical record. In the case of a declaration of a qualified patient known to the attending physician to be pregnant, a medical evaluation must be made as to whether the fetus is viable and could with a reasonable degree of medical certainty develop to live birth with continued application of life sustaining procedures. If such is the case, the declaration is given no force or effect. Notwithstanding the provisions of a declaration, when an attending physician has determined that pain results from a discontinuance of artificial nourishment, he may order that such nourishment be provided but only to the extent necessary to provide comfort and alleviate pain. A declaration executed before two witnesses by any competent adult is legally effective. The statutory form is not required. In the event that the Declarant is physically unable to sign the declaration, it may be signed by some other person in the Declarant's presence and at his direction. A person so signing may not be:
A declaration may be revoked by the Declarant orally, in writing, or by burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying said declaration. Decisional capacity is the ability to provide informed consent to, or refusal of, medical treatment. If there is something you do not understand about this document you should consult an attorney. Before signing this Colorado Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment you need to discuss your treatment with your physician in as much detail as possible, and consider types of treatments that you want/do not want to be performed for you when you are unable to express your wishes because of your illness. Please make sure to state clearly particular treatments you want or do not want. This document may not be changed or modified. If you want to make changes in the Colorado Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment, you must make an entirely new one. POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE (MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY) The Colorado Medical Durable Power of Attorney (DHCPOA) is regulated by the Colorado Patient Autonomy Act and Colorado Revised Statutes.Because your health care providers in some cases may not have had the opportunity to establish a long-term relationship with you, they are often unfamiliar with your beliefs and values and the details of your family relationships. This poses a problem if you become physically or mentally unable to make decisions about your health care. In order to avoid this problem, you may sign this legal document to specify the person whom you want to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make those decisions personally. That person is known as your “Health Care Agent” (“Agent”) You should take some time to discuss your thoughts and beliefs about medical treatment with the person or persons whom you have specified. You may state in this Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care any types of health care that you do or do not desire and you may limit the authority of your Agent. If your Agent is unaware of your desires with respect to a particular health care decision, he or she is required to determine what would be in your best interests in making the decision. The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is an important legal document. It gives your Agent broad powers to make health care decisions for you. Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care revokes any prior power of attorney for health care that you may have made. If you wish to change your power of attorney for health care, you may revoke this document at any time by destroying it, by directing another person to destroy it in your presence, by signing a written and dated statement or by stating that it is revoked in the presence of two witnesses. If you revoke your Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, you should notify your Agent, your health care providers and any other person to whom you have given a copy. If your Agent is your spouse and your marriage is annulled or you are divorced after signing this document, the document is invalid. You may also use Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care to authorize your Agent or attorney-in-fact to make an anatomical gift upon your death. Do not sign this document unless you clearly understand it. It is suggested that you keep the original of this document on file with your physician and family members. A Declarant may revoke an Agent's authority or the right to consent to or refuse any proposed medical treatment, and no Agent may consent to or refuse medical treatment for a Declarant over the Declarant's objection. Unless otherwise expressly provided in the medical durable power of attorney under which the Declarant appointed the Declarant's spouse as the Agent, a subsequent divorce, dissolution of marriage, annulment of marriage, or legal separation between the Declarant and spouse appointed as Agent automatically revokes such appointment. Unless otherwise specified in the medical durable power of attorney, if a Declarant revokes the appointment of an Agent or the Agent is unable or unwilling to serve, the appointment of the Agent is revoked. THIS ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE IS NOT VALID UNLESS IT IS SIGNED IN THE PRESENCE OF TWO COMPETENT ADULT WITNESSES. THE FOLLOWING PERSONS MAY NOT ACT AS ONE OF THE WITNESSES: (1) the person designated by the Principal as your agent;(2) a person related to the Principal by blood or marriage; (3) a person entitled to any part of the Principal’s estate after the Principal’s death under a will or codicil executed by the Principal or by operation of law; (4) the Principal’s attending physician; (5) an employee of the Principal’s attending physician; (6) an employee of a health care facility in which the Principal is a patient if the employee is providing direct patient care to the Principal or is an officer, director, partner, or business office employee of the health care facility or of any parent organization of the health care facility; or (7) a person who, at the time this power of attorney is executed, has a claim against any part of the Principal’s estate after his or her death. |
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