Bioethics

What is the purpose of having an advance directive?

The purpose of an advance directive is to allow you to tell us your choices about your care in the future. You put your wishes in writing while you are able to make decisions. The law says that all hospitals must give you information about your right to make decisions about your medical care. Hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital will comply with your directives, or try to provide referral to a caregiver or facility that will. http://www.via-christi.org

There are four types of advanced directives listed in your text. Please list three of them:

Medical Power of Attorney - authorizes someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incompetent. A Medical Power of Attorney can be a separate document or can be part of a Durable Power of Attorney. Other powers can be included in the Durable Power of Attorney authorizing someone to act on you behalf.

DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) Order - directs that in the event of your cadiac or respiratory arrest that your wishes in the DNR Order be honored. DNR means that if your heart stops beating or if you stop breathing, no medical procedure to restart breathing or heart function will be started by emergency medical services personnel.

Living Will - states your wishes about the use of artificial life support to keep you alive if you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious. It also may include your wish to donate organs and tissues after your death.

http://www.kyjustice.org

What is the purpose of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act?

Uniform Anatomical Gift Act

an act established in 1968 to standardize state laws on the donation of organs and tissues from cadavers; it is based on the premise that an individual should be able to control the disposition of his or her own body after death.

Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of...