Introduction to Your Idaho Advance Directive
This packet contains an Idaho Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. This is a legal document that protects your right to refuse medical treatment you do not want, or to request treatment you do want, in the event you lose the ability to make decisions yourself:
The first part of your document is a Living Will. This section lets you state your wishes about medical care in the event that you are terminally ill or in a persistent vegetative state and can no longer make your own medical decisions. Your Living Will becomes effective when your doctor determines that either (a) that you are terminally ill that the application of artificial life-sustaining procedures would only serve to prolong artificially your life, and that your death will occur with or without the use of life-sustaining procedures, or (b) that you are in a persistent vegetative state.
The second part of your document is a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. This section lets you name someone to make decisions about your medical care — including decisions about life sustaining treatment — if you can no longer speak for yourself.
Your Durable Power of Attorney goes into effect when your doctor determines that you are no longer able to make or communicate your health care decisions. The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is especially useful because it appoints someone to speak for you any time you are unable to make your own medical decisions, not only at the end of life.
This form does not expressly address mental illness. If you would like to make advance care plans involving mental illness, you should talk to your physician and an attorney about a durable power of attorney.
Following your Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is an Organ Donation Form.
Idaho law provides for the preparation of a Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) form, which is appropriate in cases where a patient has an incurable or irreversible injury, disease, illness or condition, or is in a persistent vegetative state. It is similar to a do not resuscitate order, but broader. It must be obtained from, and signed by, your health care provider. If there is a conflict between the instructions included in an individual’s POST and their Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, the orders of the POST will be followed. We suggest you speak to your health care provider if you are interested in obtaining this form.
Note: These documents will be legally binding only if the person completing them is a competent adult (at least 18 years old) or an emancipated minor.