Once you have made a health care directive there are steps you can take to make sure your wishes are followed. There are also ways to change or end a directive.
It is important to keep your directive in a place where it can easily be found. This will allow the people caring for you to follow the directive when you need health care. You may want to have a copy in your wallet and give copies to your proxy, your doctor and family members.
You can cancel a health care directive either orally or in writing. You may also destroy it, or make a new directive, which will cancel your old directive.
A directive will not be in effect while you are capable of making health care decisions. This is the case when you can understand, appreciate and communicate the decision.
Your directive gives instructions to anyone who is treating you. If you are being treated for something that you dealt with in your directive your, wishes must be followed. If it is not something you dealt with, your directive will be used as guide. If you named a proxy, they will make the decisions if you have not dealt with the situation.
If a dispute arises, an interested person may apply to the Court of King's Bench to challenge the appointment of a proxy or a decision made by a:
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