A health care proxy grants someone extensive power over your medical care. When your doctor formally determines that you are unable to make medical decisions for yourself, your proxy steps into your shoes, making medical decisions as if they were you. However, this authority has certain restrictions and requirements. Knowing these can help protect your wishes and equip your proxy to handle their potential responsibilities.
What decisions can your health care proxy make?
Your health care proxy can make a wide range of medical decisions on your behalf. This includes:
- Life-support choices: They can decide whether to start or stop treatments that keep you alive, like breathing machines or CPR.
- Pain management: They can choose how to manage your pain and keep you comfortable.
- Surgery decisions: They can approve or refuse surgical procedures.
- Medication choices: They can make decisions about what medicines you should or shouldn’t receive.
Your proxy should make decisions based on what you would want. They should consider your previously stated wishes, your values and beliefs, your views on quality of life, your religious or moral beliefs and your past comments about medical treatments.
Are there any limits to what your proxy can decide for you?
Your health care proxy can make many decisions, but there are some limitations. In New York, they:
- Cannot make choices about money or other non-medical matters
- Cannot put you in a mental health facility
- Cannot make decisions about artificial nutrition and hydration (such as feeding tubes or IV fluids) unless they know your wishes about these treatments
- Should follow any instructions or wishes you’ve explicitly stated in your health care proxy document
- Must follow your living will if you have one
You can add more restrictions when you create your health care proxy document. However, consider seeking professional legal guidance for complex situations or specific restrictions.
Don’t leave your future to chance
An attorney can help you make informed decisions and ensure your documents clearly communicate – and legally protect – your health care wishes.