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ADVANCE MEDICAL DIRECTIVES
Advance directives preserve the person's right to accept or deny a rate of medicaltreatmenteven after that face becomes mentally or physically incapacitated to the point of being unable to inform those wishes.
There ared twobasic types of advance directives: (1) a living will, in which the face outlines specifictreatmentguidelines that are to be followed by healthcare providers; (2) a healthcare proxy (also called a strength of attorney for healthcare decision making) in which the face designates a trusted individual to create medical decisions in the event that he or she becomes too incapacitated to create such decisions.
Advance directive requirements vary greatly from one jurisdiction to other and must therefore be drawn up in consultation with an attorney who is familiar with the laws of the special jurisdiction. (This entry is based uponmaterial from the National MS Society).