A Healthcare Directive is the document that lets you speak for yourself when you no longer can, and lets the people you love stop guessing.
What an Oregon Advance Directive covers.
Oregon's Advance Directive is a single state-recognized form that does two things at once: it lets you appoint a healthcare representative who can make medical decisions on your behalf, and it lets you write down your specific wishes about end-of-life care, life-sustaining treatment, tube feeding, and pain management.
Naming a healthcare representative.
The healthcare representative is the person doctors will turn to when you cannot speak. They have the authority to consent to or refuse treatment on your behalf, in line with what they understand your wishes to be. Choose someone who knows you, lives reasonably close (or is reachable quickly), and can be calm under pressure.
Specific decisions to think through.
- Life-sustaining treatment. Under what conditions, if any, would you want CPR, ventilation, or other interventions?
- Tube feeding & hydration. Your wishes around artificial nutrition and hydration.
- Comfort care. Your priorities around pain management and quality of life.
- Organ donation. Whether you wish to be an anatomical donor.
- Specific instructions. Anything else your representative should know.
What it does not cover.
An Advance Directive covers medical decisions only. Your financial affairs are governed by a separate document, the durable financial Power of Attorney. Together with your Will or trust, those three documents form the foundation of a complete plan.
Oregon's Advance Directive form is widely recognized, but updates are recommended every few years.
Wishes change. Relationships change. The form itself has been updated by the legislature over time. We recommend reviewing your directive every five years and after any major life event, marriage, divorce, the death of a representative, or a new diagnosis.
If you have questions about how this fits into your own plan, the right next step is a focused two-hour consultation to design your plan with a clear flat-fee quote before any work begins.