Advance health care directives are important supplementary documents for modern estate plans. They allow people to provide instructions regarding their medical care if they become incapacitated.
One of the important issues that people may address in an advance health care directive is their preferences regarding anatomical gifts. When people are about to die, medical professionals can sustain basic life functions to harvest organs and tissue. These donations can save lives or drastically improve a recipient’s quality of life.
Families often feel conflicted about tissue and organ donation. Clear instructions take pressure off of family members and help to ensure that people follow an individual’s wishes at the end of their life.
What details should the directive include?
Families may struggle to make decisions about anatomical gifts without guidance, but people can plan in advance. California actually has a relatively robust law regulating anatomical gifts.
People can not just opt into organ donation. They can provide specific instructions regarding what organs and tissues they wish to donate. They may agree to donate organs for life-saving procedures but not tissues used for other medical purposes, for example.
It is also possible to make arrangements in advance to make a whole-body donation to a medical research facility or college. For those with unusual medical conditions, whole-body can lead to more effective research that could benefit others with similar challenges.
Including provisions clarifying personal preferences about anatomical donation in an advance health care directive can help people leave a meaningful legacy and reduce a common source of stress for family members when a person’s health declines. Creating and updating advance health care directives can help people protect their loved ones and control the legacy they leave behind.
