Screen 3: Medical Directive - General Information
What if you don't have anyone to appoint in a Power of Attorney to make decisions for you? What if you have very specific instructions about treatments you wish to receive and treatments you wish to avoid? Virginia law now allows Medical Directives which we can use to make such wishes known when we are not able to communicate those choices for ourselves. You can have both a Power of Attorney and a Medical Directive or just one or the other. Why would you want both? Your agent can only be your voice if he or she knows what you would choose if you could do so for yourself. A great way to guide your agent is through a Medical Directive. On the other hand, a Medical Directive cannot cover every possible situation. Your agent can step in to make any decisions that you have not covered in your Medical Directive. By putting your wishes in writing, your agent and your doctors can determine what is important to you even if you have not covered the exact situation in your Medical Directive. A Medical Directive can be used for all types of care, including end-of-life decisions and psychiatric decisions which we will cover next.
NEXT - Screen 4: Living Will
BACK to Screen 2: Power of Attorney
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