Bronx Living Will Attorney

Creating the Document You Need

It’s best if you never need to use a living will, but making your wishes and instructions known to your loved ones is important. A Bronx living will lawyer at the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin can create a living will that clearly expresses your personal wishes about end-of-life treatment options.

Exactly how does a living will – or what is sometimes called an “advance healthcare directive” – work? Should you have one? If you keep reading, you’ll learn the answers, and you’ll also learn more about the other estate planning attorney services offered by the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin.

Why is a Living Will So Important?

Advances in medical technology in recent decades have made caring for those who are terminally ill potentially painful, costly, lengthy, and emotionally exhausting – for patients as well as their families.

The Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991 requires health care providers to give certain patients information about the right to create a living will. Your living will keeps the decisions about your medical treatment in your control, even if you are incapable of expressing your wishes.

The main reason for creating your living will is to inform others whether or not your life should be prolonged if you are terminally ill. In New York, your living will goes into effect when doctors determine that you are near death, permanently incapacitated, or permanently comatose.

What Treatments Are Considered Life-Prolonging?

Feeding tubes and respirators are not the only life-prolonging treatments. Life-prolonging treatment may also include medications, blood products or blood transfusions, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), kidney dialysis, and surgery.

Treatments that you may address in a living will also include chemotherapy, hydration, nutrition, artificial respiration, and antibiotics. You may refuse life sustaining treatment but still receive pain medication. A living will addresses pain management only if you do not want it.

Your living will also can keep your family members from having to make excruciating decisions at a confusing, emotional time. If you are unsure about what medical care you will want when and if that time comes, discuss the matter with a doctor you trust.

Before you sign a living will, you might also want to conduct research on your own about end-of-life care. Talk with medical professionals, to a spiritual adviser or someone in your worship community, and also make use of the many online resources that are available.

What Should Your Living Will Include?

If you do not have a living will, your loved ones may be burdened with the obligation to make health care choices on your behalf. Sometimes the courts are pulled in to make life-or-death decisions for persons who have not established a living will. Your living will should include:

your name, the date, and your signature
a statement that you are “of sound mind and body” and competent to make the living will
directions for your doctor and your health care proxy agent in case of an “incurable or irreversible mental or physical condition with no reasonable expectation of recovery”
the signatures of at least two witnesses

How Can the Right Living Will Attorney Help?

In New York, without a living will, you can lose the power to make your own medical decisions if you’re incapacitated. You could be at the mercy of others who may not make the medical decisions you would have made, or they simply may not know your wishes. A good lawyer for living will can provide the solution.

Consult the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin about creating a personalized living will to express your own exact wishes and instructions. New York does not have a standard living will form, but the state honors living wills that offer “clear and convincing” evidence of someone’s wishes.

An attorney’s help with a living will is essential. Ambiguous estate planning documents conceivably could complicate an already-difficult circumstance, but when you work with the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin, you can rest easy knowing that your wishes will be made perfectly clear.

What Else Should You Know About Living Wills?

Make copies of the living will for your doctor and your trusted family members, and keep a copy on your person just in case the unexpected happens. In the State of New York, once a living will has been written and signed, it is binding.

After you establish your living will, you should review it periodically to ensure that it still spells out accurately your instructions and wishes. In New York, you may amend or revoke a living will by:

creating a new living will
destroying your living will
informing your doctor and health care proxy agent that your living will is revoked

A living will expresses your wishes if you are too ill to express those wishes yourself, but in New York, even with a living will, you should also have a health care proxy. If you can’t express yourself, your doctor will ask the “agent” named in your health care proxy what your wishes are.

About the Living Will Attorney of Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin

It is essential in New York to have both documents so that your instructions regarding end-of-life medical care are clear to anyone who needs to know. A living will attorney at the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin can help a client with end-of-life and estate planning needs that may include:

health care proxy forms
power-of-attorney forms
revocable and irrevocable trusts
your last will and testament
any other estate planning needs

There is No Charge for Your First Legal Consultation

Bronx living will lawyer Thomas J. Lavin has practiced law in the State of New York for more than thirty-five years. He has built an outstanding reputation for client service and professional excellence. Attorney Thomas J. Lavin has worked for more than five thousand clients.

We cannot know the future, but the estate planning team at the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin will help you prepare for whatever it brings. We will help you create, review, and revise a living will, a health care proxy, and the other end-of-life and estate planning documents you need.

Your first legal consultation with us is provided at no cost or obligation. In the Bronx, the Law Offices of Thomas J. Lavin are conveniently located at 2980 Bruckner Boulevard and at 3561 East Tremont Avenue. Call 718-306-9162.