You have the right to make decisions about your own medical treatment. These decisions become more difficult if, due to illness or a change in mental condition, you are unable to tell your physician and loved ones what kind of healthcare treatments you want. That is why it is important for you to make your wishes known in advance. Here is a brief description of each kind of directive:

A set of instructions documenting your wishes about life-sustaining medical care. It is used if you become terminally ill, incapacitated, or unable to communicate or make decisions. A living will protects your rights to accept or refuse medical care and removes the burden for making decisions from your family, friends, and medical professionals. 

If you are too sick to make decisions, close family members or a close friend may decide with the physician and nurses what is best for you. This works most of the time. But sometimes, everyone does not agree about what to do. One way to help ensure that your wishes will be honored is to name someone you trust who will make medical decisions for you. You may name this person who acts as your healthcare surrogate in a living will, in which case this person makes only those medical decisions related to serious illness that could cause death.



A surrogate also may make medical decisions for you when you are temporarily too sick to do so yourself. You may wish to put this in writing on a surrogate designation form available at the hospital. Remember, if you want this person also to make decisions about the use of machines and medical treatment when you are hopelessly ill, name the same person in your living will. It is advisable to name a replacement in case the person you have chosen to make decisions for you becomes unable or unwilling to do so.

For healthcare: A legal document that names your healthcare proxy. Once written, it should be signed, dated, witnessed, notarized (depending on your state), copied, and put into your medical record. 

For finances: You also may want to appoint someone to manage your financial affairs when you cannot. A durable power of attorney for finances is a separate legal document from the durable power of attorney for healthcare. You may choose the same person for both, or choose different people to represent you. 

The legal basis for these rights can be found in the Florida Statutes: Healthcare Advance Directives Act, Chapter 765; Healthcare Surrogate Act, Chapter 745; Durable Power of Attorney, Section 709.08; Court-Appointed Guardianship, Chapter 744; and in the Florida Supreme Court decision on the constitutional right of privacy, Guardianship of Estelle Browning, 1990.