What information should my advanced healthcare directive contain?

What information should my advanced healthcare directive contain?

Arthur Shorr (Former COO and SVP of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) gives expert video advice on: What are 'advanced healthcare directives'?; What information should my advanced healthcare directive contain? and more...

An advanced healthcare directive anticipates end of life orientated decisions. It deals with issues such as your wishes to be maintained on artificial life support. An advanced healthcare directive relates to whether or not you wish to have heroic measures used for you, such as resuscitating you if you have a cardiac arrest, depending on the situation. For example: if you are terminally ill, you may wish not to have heroic measures done, but allow the normal, natural processes to occur; but then you may very well wish to have heroic measures, and only you can express your needs in your own best interests. When you can not communicate them because you have a brain injury, you're comatose, you're under the influence of extremely debilitating medications or whatever, by dealing with this in advance - and this is why its called an advanced health care directive - it allows your care-givers and allows your custodian to make end of life decisions that are consistent with what you would like best done for yourself.