Caring for Your Aging Parents
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| | Common Incapacity Documents
| Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
(DPAHC)/Health-Care Proxy
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| Advantages | Disadvantages | - Is flexible--allows your representative to act on
your behalf and make medical decisions based on current circumstances
- Generally, your representative can make any
decision you would be allowed to make
- Generally can be used any time you become
incompetent
| - Not practical in an emergency--your representative
must be present to act on your behalf
- Not permitted in some states
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| Living Will
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| Advantages | Disadvantages | - Allows you to convey decisions regarding your
medical care without relying on any one person to carry out your wishes
| - Generally can be used only if you are terminally
ill or injured, or in a persistent vegetative state
- Generally used only to make decisions regarding
life-sustaining treatments
- Emergency medical personnel generally cannot
withhold emergency care based on a living will
- Not permitted in some states
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| Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
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| Advantages | Disadvantages | - Allows you to decline CPR if your heart or breathing
fails
- Effective in an emergency--your doctor should note
an in-hospital DNR order on your chart. Out-of-hospital DNR orders take various
forms, depending on the laws of your state. ID bracelets, MedicAlert
® necklaces, and wallet cards are some methods of noting DNR status.
| - Some states allow DNR orders only for hospitalized
patients--others do not restrict eligibility
- Only used to decline CPR in case of cardiac or
respiratory arrest
- Not permitted in some states
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| Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA)
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| Advantages | Disadvantages | - You control who acts and what they can do with your
property
- Low cost to implement
- Decreases the chance of court intervention
| - Some states do not permit a "springing" DPOA (i.e.,
a DPOA that is effective only after you have become incapacitated)
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