Alaska law allows any competent adult may execute a document directing that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn. Revocable living will, power of attorney for health care
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Alaska Statutes, Title 47. It is not mandatory that you have health care directive, however it is highly recommended. Without advance directive you can not communicate your wishes to the doctor |
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According to Alaska law, any individual 18 years of age or more and of sound mind may execute a declaration governing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment – a Living Will Declaration. Among the options that you may consider in your Living Will Declaration are:
You may name an alternate agent to act for you if your first choice is not willing, able, or reasonably available to make decisions for you. Unless related to you, your agent may not be an owner, operator, or employee of a health care institution where you are receiving care. Unless the form you sign limits the authority of your agent, your agent may make all health care decisions for you that you could legally make for yourself. This form has a place for you to limit the authority of your agent. You do not have to limit the authority of your agent if you wish to rely on your agent for all health care decisions that may have to be made. Before you start working on your Advance Health Care Directive you shall know the following important definitions: A qualified patient means a patient eighteen (18) or more years of age who has executed a declaration or appointed a health care proxy and who has been determined to be in a terminal condition or in a permanently unconscious state by the attending physician and another qualified physician who has examined the patient. A life-sustaining treatment means any medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or to maintain the patient in a condition of permanent unconsciousness. A Permanently unconscious means a lasting condition, indefinitely without change in which thought, feeling, sensations, and awareness of self and environment are absent. A terminal condition means an incurable and irreversible condition that, without the administration of life-sustaining treatment, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short time. A doctor must state in writing that the patient is in terminal condition, and this document must be a part of the patient’s medical record. An attending physician or other health care provider who is unwilling to comply with this requirement shall as promptly as practicable take all reasonable steps to transfer care of the declarant to another physician or health care provider. The Declaration must be signed by the declarant, or another at the declarant's direction, and witnessed by two (2) individuals. Your Living Will and/or Power of Attorney for Health Care can be revoked at any time by telling your doctor and family members that your wishes have changed. You should tear up and throw away all copies of the document you have revoked. If you do not have a Living Will or a Power of Attorney for Health Care, then decisions about your care may be made by a “surrogate decision-maker,” such as certain relatives, a person appointed by a court, or a court itself. The surrogate decision-maker must make decisions based on what you would have wanted if you were able to express your decisions, but if you have not made your wishes known, then the surrogate decision-maker, together with your physician, will make treatment decisions for you based upon their opinions as to your best interest. Please note that a health care provider or a health care institution may not require or prohibit the execution or revocation of an advance health care directive as a condition for admission, discharge, or providing health care. |
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