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 Durable Power of Attorney For Healthcare It is a good idea to have a Durable Power of Attorney For Healthcare, even if you are not advanced in years, since you could have an unexpected accident and be rendered temporarily incapacitated. We urge our clients, no matter what their age, to consider a Durable Power of Attorney For Healthcare, since it can save them, and particularly their family members, a number of headaches. An example is illustrative. What if your daughter is 23 years old and living at college. Assume that while she is not completely independent, she is responsible for her support. If she is in a coma as a result of a car accident, even if it is temporary, one might think that you, as her parents, could simply tell the doctor what medical treatment to administer or what steps to take for her care. The problem is that this assumption may be totally wrong, even though more than 90% of American families rely on such an assumption in today's society. Because your daughter is an adult and arguably living on her own, many physicians and hospitals will not readily assent to the wishes of the parents, in the absence of any writing evidencing the daughter's intent. As an added complication, she may have a boyfriend with whom she has been living who might surface to render "assistance" with such decisions. In the presence of such potential conflict, the hospital or medical professions might opt to take no action. Many people do not understand this legal reasoning. But if you consider another situation, the reasoning may be clearer. Suppose that your daughter, in the same facts, seriously injures a person while driving her car. Under most every state law, with certain possible exceptions, you, as her parents would not be legally responsible for the injuries which she caused in the accident. If one of her passengers was critically injured, she [her estate] might attempt to sue the parents of the daughter, and under most laws [naturally with a few exceptions] parents would not be liable, because the daughter is an adult. Thus, the same reasoning that insulates parents from liability for any damages caused to any other persons in the car, makes the law consider your daughter to be independent from your control in her personal healthcare decisions in many states. Thus, if you do not consider a Durable Power of Attorney For Healthcare for your children, you might be creating a number of problems in the event an emergency arose. And, such a document is very easy to draft, as we will see.
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