Many clients are concerned about the medical profession's use of extreme health care measures to keep patients alive.  Clients may address this issue in an Advance Directive for Health Care.

In the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care or GADHC, a client may identify an agent who will make decisions about whether to use extreme measures to keep the client alive, or whether to withhold or discontinue such measures if it is in the best interests of the client to do so.  The advance directive also allows the client to state her preferences concerning the use of extreme measures, in case her agent is unavailable or unwilling to act on her behalf.

Moreover, the GADHC gives the health care agent the right to visit and have full access to the client in the hospital, to talk with the client's doctors, and to review the client's medical record.

The GADHC also allows the client to name her guardian - someone who will be her caregiver, or who will ensure that her physical needs are provided for, in the event the client is unable to care for herself.

The GADHC then, is particularly vital to a client who is part of a nontraditional family:  it allows her to name her domestic partner as her agent, to have access to her partner in the hospital, and to allow her partner to make the right decisions in this crucial time.

PLEASE NOTE: EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2007, THE GEORGIA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE FOR HEALTH CARE REPLACED THE GEORGIA DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE AND THE GEORGIA LIVING WILL.  ALL POWERS OF ATTORNEY AND LIVING WILLS SIGNED PRIOR TO JULY 1, 2007 WILL REMAIN FULLY VALID; HOWEVER, CLIENTS SHOULD CONSIDER WHETHER IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO UPDATE THEIR HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVES USING THE NEW STATUTORY FORM.