Living Wills and Advance Directives in Alabama | The Harris Firm LLC

The Decision Nobody Wants to Make for You. Alabama Lets You Make It in Advance.

An Alabama Advance Directive for Health Care combines a living will, your written wishes about life-sustaining treatment, with a health care proxy, the person who speaks for you when you cannot. The Harris Firm LLC prepares them as part of every estate plan. Phone consultations are free.

Every family that has stood in an ICU hallway arguing about what Mom would have wanted was missing one document. It takes twenty minutes to sign and it settles the question before anyone has to guess. In Alabama it is called an Advance Directive for Health Care, and it does two jobs at once.

How an Alabama Advance Directive Works

The directive sits in a drawer, and in your physician’s file, until two things are true: you can no longer make or communicate your own decisions, and your attending physician and one other physician have determined that you are either terminally ill or injured, or permanently unconscious. Until then, you decide everything. Once those conditions are met, the living will section governs the treatments it addresses, and your proxy decides the rest.

The living will section asks two specific questions. If you are terminally ill or injured, do you want life-sustaining treatment, meaning any medical treatment that serves only to prolong the dying process? And do you want artificially provided nutrition and hydration? You answer each separately, and you answer them again for the permanently unconscious scenario. You can also add instructions of your own: comfort care always, no ventilator beyond a set period, hospice at home if possible.

The proxy section names a person and gives them authority to make health care decisions for you when you cannot, consistent with what you wrote. A proxy can consent to or refuse treatment, choose among physicians and facilities, and access your medical records. Name a backup. A spouse is the usual choice; the second choice is where families should think harder, because it is often the one that matters.

What the Living Will Decides, and What the Proxy Decides

A directive with only the living will section leaves every decision it does not address to Alabama’s surrogate statute, which hands the choice to a spouse, then adult children, then parents, in that order, majority rule. That works for some families and tears others apart. Naming a proxy replaces the statute with your choice.

Four Things That Catch Families Off Guard

It does not include a DNR. A do-not-resuscitate order is a physician’s order, on a specific form, that directs emergency personnel not to attempt CPR. Your advance directive can say you do not want resuscitation in a terminal condition, but paramedics respond to the DNR form, not the directive. If you want a DNR, ask your physician for the order after the directive is signed.

It does not cover money. A proxy cannot pay your bills, manage your accounts, or sign a lease for a care facility. That is the durable power of attorney, a separate document we prepare with the directive. Most families need both, and naming the same person for both is common but not required.

It should travel. Give copies to your physician, your proxy and backup, and the hospital you use. Many clients keep a card in their wallet noting that a directive exists and who the proxy is. A directive nobody can find is a directive nobody follows.

Update it when life changes. A divorce, a proxy who moves away or dies, a diagnosis that changes your thinking. You can revoke or replace a directive at any time while competent, and the newest one controls. Our will attorneys review the whole plan, not just one document, and the review call is free.

Preparing Your Advance Directive

Usually signed with the rest of your estate plan within two to three weeks. On its own, faster.

Living Wills and Advance Directives — Frequently Asked Questions

Put It in Writing. Free Phone Consultation.

One free call covers the two questions the statute asks, the proxy choice, and the flat fee for the directive alone or with the rest of your estate plan.