Do You Need to Update Your Advanced Directive (Living Will ...

Many clients of the attorneys at Crain & Skillern, pllc believe they do not need a new Advanced Directive since they had one drafted many years ago. Well, if you got your living will completed before 2006, you may need yours updated.

During the 2006 Legislative Session, the Oklahoma Legislature amended the Oklahoma Advance Directive Act (?the Act?) in response to an Attorney General Opinion.? It became effective on?May 17, 2006.The Attorney General?s opinion argued that, in its then old form, the Oklahoma Advance Directive Act was unconstitutional.? Before May of 2006, individuals could only designate refusal of life-sustaining treatment only if they were persistently unconscious (in a vegetative state) or if they were diagnosed with a terminal condition. The old act had no provision to allow people to choose if they want treatment or not if they were diagnosed with an ?End-stage Condition.?

The Oklahoma Legislature listened to the Attorney General, and added this category to the statute. Now, individuals can discuss what they would want in an ?End-Stage Condition.? An ?End-stage Condition? is a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness, which results in severe and permanent deterioration indicated by incompetency and complete physical dependency for which, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, treatment of the irreversible condition would be medically ineffective.? Importantly, this includes Alzheimer?s disease in its late stages.

At Crain & Skillern, our updated Advance Directives forms allow you and your spouse to refuse life-sustaining treatment and/or artificial administration of nutrition and hydration, if you so choose. It will allow allow you to designate that you absolutely want all the treatment you can receive.? Whether you choose to refuse life-sustaining treatment or to continue all treatment options, executing a new advance directive should be on your priority list.

If you have not updated your Advanced Directive, or have never had one drafted with your desires, contact the attorneys at Crain & Skillern today. For more reading on what an Advanced Directive can do you for, please read a past post all about living wills here.

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