According to Florida law, nursing homes, hospices, hospitals and some insurance organizations are legally required to provide consumers with a written summary of their legal rights to create advance health care directives.
A living will is an instrument you create while you are still alive and well enough to make those decisions. You may want to create one in addition to drafting a document appointing your health care surrogate.
Once you create a living will, you should give a copy of it to the person that you appoint as your health care surrogate if you appointed one. The surrogate has the legal ability to make decisions on your behalf regarding any medical treatments if you become incapable of making them. If you want to designate a health care surrogate, you should do that in writing. Like a living will, you must sign your surrogate document in front of two witnesses, one of which is not a spouse or a relative. Your surrogate is not able to serve as a witness to your document.
It is your legal responsibility to notify your physicians of your living will. Once you give your physician a copy of it, he must place it in your medical file for future reference.
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