A Living Will to Avoid Bankruptcy?

You don't need a degree in math to figure out that with health care going up more than 10% every year, and personal income only growing by 4% per year, things aren't looking as good as they were a few years ago. The reality is that it is possible for someone to work for a lifetime and retire with a nest egg of, say, $750,000, and end up having to spend it to cover one major medical issue. This is increasingly true due to better survival rates that, while saving a life, may mean costly day to day care to keep you alive due to the results of a significant illness. It is for this last reason that more people implementing a living will that could save some families from bankruptcy.

Living wills, also known as 'advanced directives,' are legal documents that grant another person the right to order that treatment cease in the event a person is unable to live, eat, and function without the aid of machines or medical care. Essentially you could opt to have any machine or device that is being used to keep a person alive, discontinued or turned off if the executor of the living will decides it is in the best interest of the patient and their family.

Generally speaking, a physician, or physicians, must determine that a patient is not likely to improve in condition and are in a state of extreme discomfort and pain. Again, the patient must not be able to take care of his or her self, and requires a machine in order to remain alive. It is at this point that a person who has a living will, would have made plans to have the treatment terminated at the executors request.

There are times when a living will can be contested by other family members not named in the document. However, in most cases courts tend to rule in favor of the wishes of the patient as spelled out in the will and have seldom ordered that treatment continue.