State Law - According to Florida law, an Advance Health Care Directive means a witnessed written document or oral statement
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Read law summary requirements for Florida and start completing your health care directive. Legal Helpmate provides Florida Advance Health Care Directive, Living Will, Designation of Health Care Surrogate |
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The Living Will and designation of health care surrogate in Florida is regulated by Florida Statutes, paragraphs 765.101, 765.104, and 765-201, 765-205, 765.301 through 765.309.
On our website you may purchase either the Florida Advance Health Care Directive, which combines three forms in one document: a Living Will, an Anatomical gift donation, and a Health Care Power of Attorney. Or, you may buy all three legal forms separately. You are not obligated by law to have one form and not to have the other. According to Florida Statute, an adult may prepare a written statement known as a “Living Will” to control the health care treatment decisions that can be made on that person's behalf. The person may use the Living Will as part of or instead of a health care power of attorney or to disqualify a surrogate. In a Living Will, you do not appoint an agent to make health related decisions for you if you are terminally ill. If you wish to designate such an agent (attorney-in-fact), you need to complete a Health Care Power of Attorney or a Florida Advance Health Care Directive, which that combines into one document three forms in one document: a Living Will, an anatomical gift donation, and a Health Care Power of Attorney. Here are some of the important definitions you will need to shall know before you start working on your advance health care directive: An "advance directive" is a witnessed written document or oral statement in which you (the “Principal”) give instructions or express desires concerning any aspect of your health care, and which includes, but is not limited to, the designation of a health care surrogate, a living will, or an anatomical gift. An "end-stage condition" is a condition that is caused by injury, disease, or illness which has resulted in severe and permanent deterioration, indicated by incapacity and complete physical dependency, and for which, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, treatment of the irreversible condition would be medically ineffective. A "health care decision" is:
"Informed consent" is consent voluntarily given by a person after a sufficient explanation and disclosure of the subject matter involved to enable that person to have a general understanding of the treatment or procedure and the medically acceptable alternatives, including the substantial risks and hazards inherent in the proposed treatment or procedures, and to make a knowing health care decision without coercion or undue influence. A "life-prolonging procedure" is any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention, including artificially provided sustenance and hydration, which sustains, restores, or supplants a spontaneous vital function. The term does not include the administration of medication or performance of medical procedure when such medication or procedure is deemed necessary to provide comfort care or to alleviate pain. A "Living Will" or "declaration" is
A "proxy" is a competent adult who has not been expressly designated to make health care decisions for a particular incapacitated individual, but who is authorized pursuant to 765.401 to make health care decisions for an individual. A "surrogate" is any competent adult expressly designated by a Principal to make health care decisions on behalf of the Principal upon the Principal's incapacity. A "terminal condition" means a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness from which there is no reasonable medical probability of recovery and which, without treatment, can be expected to cause death. A competent adult may, at any time, make a Living Will or written declaration and direct the providing, withholding, or withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures in the event that he or she has a terminal condition, has an end-stage condition, or is in a persistent vegetative state. A Living Will must be signed by the Principal in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, one of whom is neither a spouse nor a blood relative of the Principal. If the Principal is physically unable to sign the Living Will, one of the witnesses must subscribe the Principal's signature in the Principal's presence and at the Principal's direction. It is the responsibility of the Principal to provide for notification to her or his attending or treating physician that the Living Will has been made. An attending or treating physician or health care facility which is so notified must make the Living Will or a copy thereof a part of the Principal's medical records. A properly executed Living Will establishes a rebuttal presumption of clear and convincing evidence of the Principal's wishes. The statutory form is suggested but is not required. If a person has made a Living Will expressing his or her desires concerning life-prolonging procedures but has not designated a surrogate to execute his or her wishes concerning life-prolonging procedures or appointed a health care surrogate, the attending physician should proceed as directed by the Principal in the Living Will. Before proceeding in accordance with the Principal's Living Will, it must be determined that:
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS MAY NOT ACT AS ONE OF THE WITNESSES: (1) the person designated by the Principal as your agent;(2) a person related to the Principal by blood or marriage; (3) a person entitled to any part of the Principal’s estate after the Principal’s death under a will or codicil executed by the Principal or by operation of law; (4) the Principal’s attending physician; (5) an employee of the Principal’s attending physician; (6) an employee of a health care facility in which the Principal is a patient if the employee is providing direct patient care to the Principal or is an officer, director, partner, or business office employee of the health care facility or of any parent organization of the health care facility; or (7) a person who, at the time this power of attorney is executed, has a claim against any part of the Principal’s estate after his or her death. |
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