According to New Jersey, any individual 18 years of age or more and of sound mind may execute a Health Care Instruction Directive governing the withholding of life-sustaining treatment
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In a Living Will you do not appoint an agent to make health related decisions for you if you are terminally ill. If you wish to designate such attorney-in-fact you need to complete Health Care POA (Proxy Directive) |
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In New Jersey, a Living Will is called an "Instruction Directive" (Advance Health Care directive), where you express your wishes in advance in regards to preferable methods of treatment in case you are incapacitated or incompetent. The issuance of an Instruction Directive is regulated by The New Jersey Advance Directives for Health Care Act.
According to New Jersey law, the advance directive for health care may be a "proxy directive" and/or an "instruction directive." A proxy directive involves the appointment of a health care representative, whom the individual empowers to make his or her health care decisions in the event of the individual's incapacity. An instruction directive is a statement of an individual's personal wishes with regard to health care in the event of loss of decision making capacity. Any competent adult may execute a declaration directing that life sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn if, at some future time, he/she is in a terminal condition and either unconscious or otherwise incompetent to decide whether any medical procedure or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. New Jersey Advance Directive for Health Care is an important legal document and designed to help you communicate your wishes about medical treatment at some time in the future when you are unable to make your wishes known because of illness or injury. These wishes are usually based on personal values. In particular, you may want to consider what burdens or hardships of treatment you would be willing to accept for a particular amount of benefit obtained if you were seriously ill. It is the responsibility of the principal (you) to provide for notification to your attending or treating physician that the living will has been made. In the event the principal is physically or mentally incapacitated at the time the principal is admitted to a health care facility, any other person may notify the physician or health care facility of the existence of the living will. An attending or treating physician or health care facility which is so notified shall promptly make the living will or a copy thereof a part of the principal's medical records. If there is something you do not understand about this document you should consult an attorney. An Instruction Directive executed before two witnesses by any competent adult is legally effective. THIS INSTRUCTION DIRECTIVE (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. If the Declarant is a patient or resident of a health care facility, no witness can be a patient of that facility. A declaration may be revoked by the Declarant orally, in writing, or by burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying said declaration. Before signing this New Jersey Instruction Directive (Advance Health Care directive) you need to discuss your treatment with your physician in as many details 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 New Jersey Instruction Directive, you must make an entirely new one. |
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