Advance Directive (CA)

This document allows you to appoint an agent to make health care decisions for you and express your wishes for life-prolonging care in an end-of-life situation. Specifically, you can:

1. Name someone to make decisions about your medical care, including decisions about life support. You may limit their authority to make these decisions, say when their authority becomes effective, and grant or limit additional authority for post-death matters such as organ donation, treatment of your remains, and authorizing an autopsy.
2. State your wishes about medical care if: 1) you're terminally ill, 2) you're permanently unconscious, or 3) the likely risks and burdens of treatment would outweigh the expected benefits.
3. Record your wishes for organ donation.
4. Designate your primary physician, and a backup physician in case the first one you named is unavailable.