You need to investigate the laws in Maine regardng healthcare proxies where you select a person to act as your representative regarding health issues, health issues you specifically spell out in the document. The person does not have to be a family member and legally they outvote family members. File a copy with your clinic, doctor, hospital, and if you wish FYI to your parents or anyone else that will create a legal hassle.
http://www.state.me.us/ag/index.php?r=elderissues&s=endoflife
END-OF-LIFE CARE ISSUES
Planning AheadWould your family, close friends, or health care providers, know what kind of care you would like to receive, if due to an accident or illness you were unable to make health care decisions for yourself?
There are a few things that you can do now to make sure that you can still receive the kind of care you want even when you can not make the decisions for yourself:
TALK to your physician, relatives and friends about issues that are important to you. For example, under what conditions would you 1) not want to be revived if your heart stopped, or 2) not want to have machines breathe for you, or 3) not want to be given food and water to be kept alive if you could not eat or drink on your own? Keep in mind that oral communications alone may not be sufficient - a written direction may be more effective.
WRITE your wishes down. The document that contains your wishes regarding health care related matters is often called an advance directive. Some people may call this document a living will. In an advance directive, you can state your wishes about health care related issues and can also include wishes about organ donations, funeral arrangements and other matters that you would want your family, friends and health care providers to know about. For more information about advance directives click here. It is important to give copies of any document that expresses your end-of-life care wishes to your doctor, your local hospital and any family members or friends who may be called upon to make decisions for you.
APPOINT someone you trust to make health care decisions for you when you no longer can. The person you designate (appoint) to make decisions for you is called your agent. The document in which you appoint your agent is called a durable health-care power of attorney. The durable health-care power of attorney can be contained in the same document as the advance directive. Click here for a sample document.
The appointment of a durable health-care power of attorney must be done in writing. You and two persons, other than the agent you are appointing, must sign it. It is also wise to put the date you sign it on the document. The document that appoints your agent can be general or it can give your agent very specific directions on what decisions you want him or her to make when you no longer can make decisions. If it is general, your agent will have to rely on what you told him or her about your wishes while you had the capacity to make decisions or the agent can rely on any advance directives contained in a separate document that you wrote while you could still make decisions for yourself. If you did not discuss health care issues in detail with your agent or write down your wishes in a separate document, your agent must make the health care decisions in your best interest, taking into consideration what she or he knows about you. See 18-A MRSA ยงยง 5-501, 5-506 and 5-802.
