QUESTION: Why is it important to have a medical directive statement?

ANSWER: CLR recommends every adult sign a medical directive statement regardless of his or her current health situation or age.

The first benefit of such a statement is that it allows a person to provide direction for medical care in the event he or she is no longer able to make such decisions. Understandably, these directions must be somewhat general, because it is impossible to predict what malady will be faced.

The second benefit is that it allows a person to designate a health care agent to make decisions when the stated wishes of the document are too vague for the circumstance. If you do not have a statement a patient’s family often must guess about the kind of care the patient would want. If family members disagree among themselves the situation becomes complicated and contentious, and can sometimes only be settled by an ethics committee or through legal action.

Download CLR’s free Christian medical directive here.