Form Fr-2090-Mwhc - Virginia Advance Medical Directive (Page 2 of 7) in pdf

Your Right To Decide—Communicating Your Health Care Choices

In 1990, Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act. It requires health care institutions to tell patients

and the people in their communities about their rights under Virginia law to make decisions about their medical care.

These rights include the right to accept or refuse care and the right to make advance directives about their care.

How Do I Exercise My Health Care Rights?

Under Virginia law, “[e]very human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall

be done with his own body.” Doctors help their patients to exercise about medical treatment they are recommending.

When you then agree to the recommended treatment, you have given your informed consent. You also have the right

to refuse the recommended treatment.

What Happens If I Cannot Give My Consent?

Many people worry about what would happen if, due to mental, physical or emotional problems, they are

unable to tell their doctor whether they want or don’t want recommended medical treatment. Under a Virginia law

called the Health Care Decisions Act, if you are an adult you may sign a document that makes your choices about

treatment known to your doctor and family in advance. In that document, you also can name someone you trust to

make these decisions for you if you become unable to express your wishes yourself. This document is known as an

“advance directive”.

The Health Care Decisions Act became law in 1992, but most of the decision-making rights contained in it

have existed in Virginia for several years under other laws. The Health Care Decisions Act combines these laws to

bring them together in one place and to be sure that they do not disagree with each other. Any advance directive made

under the old laws is still valid.

This brochure describes advance directives and answers some questions about them. If you have questions

about advance directives that it does not answer, you may ask those in charge of your health care or call your local

hospital for more information. You also may wish to talk about advance directives with your family, your doctor, or a

lawyer.

How Do I Make My Choices About Life-Prolonging Treatment Known?

The Virginia Health Care Decisions Act allows you to make two types of decisions about your health care in an

advance directive. The first type of decision you can make tells people how to care for you if you ever have a terminal

condition and you are unable to make decisions for yourself. This document is often called a “living will”. A

terminal condition is an incurable condition in which death is imminent. It also means a persistent vegetative state,

which some people call a permanent coma, even when death is not imminent. In either case, a doctor has determined

that there is no medically reasonable hope for recovery.

Signing this type of advance directive permits you to decide in advance whether you want doctors to give you

what the law calls “life-prolonging procedures”.

What are “Life-Prolonging Procedures?”

These are treatments that aren’t expected to cure a terminal condition or make you better and that only prolong

dying. They include hydration (giving water) and nutrition (giving food) by tube, machines that breathe for you, and

other kinds of medical and surgical treatment. Life-prolonging procedures do not include treatments needed to make

you comfortable or to ease pain. Your doctor will give you treatment or drugs to ease pain and make you comfortable

unless you say in your advance directive that you do not want them You can also say in this type of advance directive

that you want to have particular life-prolonging procedures given to you. For example, if you want to have all life-

prolonging procedures except tube feeding withdrawn, you may say that in your advance directive.

Will an Advance Directive Help Me if I Do Not Have a Terminal Condition?

Yes, The Health Care Decisions Act permits you to make a second kind of decision in an advance directive.

You may name someone to make treatment decisions – to accept or refuse medical care – for you if at some point you

cannot make them yourself. This type of advance directive is often called a “medical power of attorney” a “durable

power of attorney for health care” or a “health care proxy”. The person named in this type of advance directive

can make all health care decisions for you that you could have made for yourself if you were able, whether or not

you are terminally ill. Or you may direct instead that he or she make only those decisions you list. The law says that

the person you choose cannot make decisions that he or she knows go against your religious beliefs, basic values and

stated preferences. You also may name a person who will see that your organs or your body are donated, as you wish,

after your death.

Form Fr-2090-Mwhc - Virginia Advance Medical Directive Page 2

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