Medical Issues And Power Of Attorney

Everything can take place and as much as we want to prepare our day, we cannot definitely predict the future. So what comes about when we instantly figure in an accident? Who will be at hand to take good care of our business transactions and other private issues? Can power of attorney resolve things?

The absence of a designated person to take care of the legal concerns when one is dying frequently becomes a problem simply because no one anticipates this taking place. And who can blame them? No one would want to go morbid and get ready for something like passing away from an illness. Death is less difficult because the will will take care of the legal issues post-mortem but loss of life is a different thing completely. This is particularly real with individuals who are seriously injured and cannot make conclusions for themselves like for example when they are under comatose or when they are unable to speak, move or are ill.


Power of attorney is one of the approaches that you can designate an agent for you should anything happen to you. While power of attorneys are often given for a certain period of time, some principals, or those who are providing the power of attorney, can stretch the contract until something occurs to them like when they become terminally in poor health or when they become seriously injured. This nevertheless should be simply mentioned on the agreement for the power of attorney. In any other case, it will be considered unacceptable by the court.

The principal can also select to appoint a representative or the attorney in fact (the individual to whom the power of attorney is offered to) to be his or her agent when they become sick. Some, actually, appoint individuals to act on their stead while they are in the medical center and to make any medical judgments in their stead like when they need to pull the plug in the event of a coma. This is commonly known as the “Health Care POA,” that makes it possible for the attorney in fact to decide on the health care matters for the principal or the grantor, even something as delicate as ending the hospital care in situations when machines are the only one preserving them alive.

It involves the power to give approval or to refuse a medical treatment for the grantor. In some states such as in New York, this is a prerequisite. A separate document is required as mentioned by the Health Care Proxy Law by the State of New York, getting your health care agent so to communicate. Medical centers will not respect the terms stated in the living will. It can state the medical wishes of the individual but it does not designate anyone from making the judgments for them.

For individuals with mental sickness, they can make the Psychiatric Advance Directives, which allows the proxy to determine psychiatric care for the individual as they cannot make the selections for themselves with regards to their well being.