Glossary

Advance Directives

Written instructions that state, in advance, how you want medical decisions to be made if you cannot speak or decide for yourself.

Agent and Attorney-in-Fact

You give authority to another person (an agent and attorney-in-fact) to act for you (the principal) in a Power of Attorney.

C.P.R. (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) Directives

Written instructions to health personnel that you do not want to be resuscitated in the event you stop breathing or your heart stops beating.

Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment or Living Will

Your written directions to your doctor to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures that artificially prolong life when you are terminally ill.

Durable Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney that is valid even if the principal becomes incapacitated.

Guardian

The person who has the court-ordered responsibility of caring for, and supervising an, incapacitated person.

Medical Durable Power of Attorney

You, the principal, give legal authority in this document to an agent to make your health care decisions if you cannot act for yourself.

Mental Commitment

A court proceeding to determine if a person is in danger and needs to be placed in the custody of the Mental Health Division for treatment and care.

Power of Attorney for Health Care

See Medical Durable Power of Attorney.

Principal

You are the principal in a Power of Attorney when you authorize someone else to act as your agent for you and your benefit.

Proxy Decision-Maker

An individual, picked by family members and friends of an incapacitated patient, to make medical treatment decisions when the patient does not have an agent under a Medical Durable Power of Attorney. If there is mutual agreement on who shall act, a hearing to appoint a guardian may be avoided.