Ohio law allows any competent adult may execute a document directing that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn.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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Ohio Advance Health Care Directive. 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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Ohio Living Will Declaration An adult who is of sound mind may execute a declaration (Living Will) governing the use or continuation, or the withholding or withdrawal, of life sustaining treatment. The Living Will Declaration must be signed by the declarant (or by another individual at the direction of the declarant), state the date of its execution, and either be witnessed or acknowledged by the declarant (see below) before a notary public.A Living Will Declaration becomes operative when it is communicated to the declarant's attending physician, that attending physician and one other physician who examines the declarant determine that the declarant is in a terminal condition or in a permanently unconscious state, and the attending physician determines that the declarant no longer is able to make informed decisions regarding the administration of life sustaining treatment. In order for a Living Will Declaration to become operative in connection with a declarant who is in a permanently unconscious state, the consulting physician associated with the determination that the declarant is in the permanently unconscious state must be a physician who is qualified to determine whether the declarant is in a permanently unconscious state. In order for a Living Will Declaration to become operative in connection with a declarant who is in a terminal condition or in a permanently unconscious state, the attending physician of the declarant must determine, in good faith and to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, and in accordance with reasonable medical standards, that there is no reasonable possibility that the declarant will regain the capacity to make informed decisions regarding the administration of life sustaining treatment. Ohio Health Care Power of Attorney A Health Care power of attorney is the document that allows you to appoint an agent (attorney in fact) for the purpose of making health treatment decisions for you when you are unable to make decisions yourself. This power is effective only when your attending physician determines that you have lost the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself and, notwithstanding this document, as long as you have the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself, you retain the right to make all medical and other health care decisions for yourself.When exercising his authority to make health care decisions for you, the attorney in fact will have to act consistently with your desires or, if your desires are unknown, to act in your best interest. You may express your desires to the attorney in fact by including them in this document or by making them known to him in another manner. Several legal and medical terms are used in this document. For your convenience they are explained below. Agent or Attorney-in-fact means the adult I name in this Health Care power of Attorney to make health care decisions for me. You CANNOT designate your attending physician or the administrator of any nursing home in which you are receiving care as the attorney in fact under this document. Additionally, you CANNOT designate an employee or agent of your attending physician, or an employee or agent of a health care facility at which you are being treated, as the attorney in fact under this document, unless either type of employee or agent is a competent adult and related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, or unless either type of employee or agent is a competent adult and you and the employee or agent are members of the same religious order. Artificially or Technologically Supplied Nutrition or Hydration means the providing of food and fluids through intravenous or tube feedings. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation or CPR means treatment to try to restart breathing or heartbeat. CPR may be done by breathing into the mouth, pushing on the chest, putting a tube through the mouth or nose into the throat, administering medication, giving electric shock to the chest, or by other means. Comfort Care means any measure taken to diminish pain or discomfort, but not to postpone death. Do Not Resuscitate or DNR Order means a medical order given by my physician and written in my medical records that cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is not to be administered to me. Health Care means any medical (including dental, nursing, psychological, and surgical) procedure, treatment, intervention or other measure used to maintain, diagnose or treat any physical or mental condition. Life-Sustaining Treatment means any health care, including artificially or technologically supplied nutrition and hydration that will serve mainly to prolong the process of dying. Living Will Declaration or Living Will means another document that lets me specify the health care I want to receive if I become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and cannot make my wishes known. Permanently Unconscious State means an irreversible condition in which I am permanently unaware of myself and my surroundings. My physician and one other physician must examine me and agree that the total loss of higher brain function has left me unable to feel pain or suffering. Principal means the person signing this document. Terminal Condition or Terminal Illness means an irreversible, incurable and untreatable condition caused by disease, illness or injury. Your physician and one other physician will have to examine you and believe that you cannot recover and that death is likely to occur within a relatively short time if you do not receive life-sustaining treatment. If, but only if, you are in a permanently unconscious state, you authorize the attorney in fact to refuse or withdraw informed consent to the provision of nutrition or hydration to you by doing both of the following in the power of attorney: 1) including a statement in capital letters that the attorney in fact may refuse or withdraw informed consent to the provision of nutrition or hydration to you if you are in a permanently unconscious state and if the determination that nutrition or hydration will not or no longer will serve to provide comfort to you or alleviate your pain is made, or checking or otherwise marking a box that is adjacent to a similar statement on this document; 2) placing your initials or signature inside the brackets according to your choice. You are responsible for telling members of your family, the agent named in your Health Care Power of Attorney (if you have one), and your physician about your Living Will and a Health Care power of attorney document. You also may wish to tell your religious advisor and your lawyer that you have signed a Living Will Declaration. You may wish to give a copy to each person notified. You may choose to file a copy of this Living Will Declaration with your county recorder for safekeeping. If there is anything about this form that you do not understand, you should ask a lawyer to explain it to you. |
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