Everyone has different values, and experts note that it’s incredibly important to take your own personal beliefs and values into account when setting up a medical long-term care plan in New York. This could include your moral and ethical beliefs, your spiritual beliefs, and more.
As you can imagine, this means there is no one-size-fits-all plan out there. No two people are going to have identical beliefs, and that’s fine. But it does mean that those people may have very different plans with regard to their end-of-life care.
For example, some people put the most importance on life for the sake of life itself. They believe that being alive trumps all else and that life should be preserved no matter what. For these people, the directive may talk about the use of life support systems to keep them alive even when their body is ailing.
Others believe that only a healthy, happy life is worth prolonging. They value the enjoyment of life more than life itself. For them, the plan may directly indicate that life support should never be used, because they want to pass away naturally when their body can no longer stay alive on its own.
Both points of view come with supporters and dissenters, but legal professionals are quick to point out that deciding which perspective is correct does not have to be the goal. Instead, the goal is to determine which is correct for each individual and to make up the legal documentation that makes the plan possible. Be sure you know about every step in this process so that your plan is firmly in place long before you need it.
Source: longtermcare.gov, “Advance Care Plan Considerations,” accessed May 24, 2016
