Libertyville Lawyers For Setting Up Living Wills

Attorneys in Lake County for Advance Medical Directives

Regardless of the size of your estate or how much wealth you have, it is your right to decide what will happen to your estate upon your death. You also have the right to control your life and what happens to you while you are still living. A Last Will and Testament is one of the most common tools for determining how your estate will be handled while a living will can be used to establish your wishes regarding your future medical care. At Newland & Newland, L.L.P., we understand that the two instruments sound like they might be quite similar to one another, but they are, in fact, quite different. Our experienced attorneys are equipped to help you choose and implement the right estate planning tools to meet your needs and those of your family.

Living Wills in Arlington Heights

You are probably familiar with the idea of a will—a document that spells out a person's last wishes regarding their property, debts, and other tangible concerns. A will can certainly be more complicated than that, but one of the defining characteristics of a will is that it has no power until the creator of the will dies. By comparison, a living will is a tool that conveys a person's wishes while he or she is still alive.

A living will does not address property concerns, however. Instead, it is used to record an individual's desires regarding end-of-life-decisions and medical care in the event that the person is diagnosed with a terminal condition. A terminal condition is a condition that cannot be reversed or cured and that has made death imminent. In short, a living will is a type of advance medical directive that can address the types of death-delaying procedures and life support you wish to receive or not receive after a diagnosis of a terminal medical condition.

Understanding Death-Delaying Procedures

According to the Illinois Living Will Act (755 ILCS 35), death-delaying procedures are medical interventions that will "serve only to postpone the moment of death" but will not reverse or cure the patient's condition. Such procedures include but are not limited to:

• Ventilators and artificial respirators;
• Dialysis and artificial kidney treatments;
• Blood transfusions; and
• Intravenous or tube feeding.

In your living will, you can decide in advance what types of death-delaying procedures that you want or do not want. At Newland & Newland, LLP, we know that such decisions are not easy, as they require you to consider issues like imminent death and quality-of-life concerns. By planning ahead, however, you can ease the burden that would otherwise be placed on your family members and loved ones if they were required to make the decisions on your behalf.

Along with your living will, you might also wish to appoint a power of attorney for health care, sometimes called a health care proxy. Your health care power of attorney will have the authority to make decisions for you if you are not able to make them for yourself, and your living will can provide him or her a great deal of guidance regarding your wishes.

Call 847-549-0000 for More Information

If you would like to know more about living wills and other advance medical directives, contact our office to discuss your available options. Call 847-549-0000 for a free, confidential consultation at any of our five convenient locations. Our firm serves clients in Libertyville, Waukegan, Mundelein, Grayslake, Lake Bluff, North Chicago, Gurnee, Lake County, and the neighboring communities.