Dear Heather,
Thanks for visiting our discussion board.
As we understand from your post your children were not adopted either by your new husband or by your ex-husbands new spouse. Therefore, they did not acquire parental rights on both of your kids.
Our suggestion in these circumstances is the issuance of Powers of Attorney for each child.
That means that a natural father will give a Power of Attorney for the care of a child (or a Limited Power of Attorney) to a person he wants to designate as his agent (your current husband) in making health-related emergency decisions for both of your children.
By the same token, you, as a natural mother, will give a Power of Attorney for the same function to the children’s step-mother. You will have four Powers of Attorney all in all, two for each child.
We provide two types of Powers of Attorney that may suit your legal needs.
One of them, A Non-durable Power of Attorney for Physical and Health Care of Minor Child permits an Agent ("attorney-in-fact") to make decisions about the child's medical treatment for a limited period of time.
The powers you grant in the above mentioned document will terminate if you become disabled or incompetent.
A Non-Durable Power of Attorney for Physical and Health Care of Minor Child is valid for the time period that you specify in it, or until it is revoked by you.
Among the powers discussed in a Non Durable Power of Attorney for health care are:
to decide what king of health care is needed, what kind of medical treatment or hospitalization to choose, to withhold or withdraw any type of medical treatment or procedure, to make any necessary effort to prolong the child’s life in the absence of a parent, to have access to the child’s medical records.
You are not giving your agent the power or authority to authorize the termination of life-support, food or hydration systems.
Please note that the Nondurable Power of Attorney for Physical and Health Care of Minor Child (Medical Power of Attorney) must be dated and acknowledged before a notary public or signed by two witnesses.
Please note that Legal Helpmate is not a law firm and we do not give legal advice.
Best regards,
Customer Support
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