If a last will and testament has been changed, can a living will be valid? The living will was made twenty years ago. A new will and testament has been made recently. The person has been deemed incapacitated..
My oldest sibling, who lives in the same city and only visited my mom maybe twice a year at most, is the power of attorney. She took my mom 3 years ago to a doctor, had her deemed competent and took her to an attorney to have her will changed making her in charge. The sibling recently put her in a nursing home and within 2 days she was deemed incompetent. She has gone through my moms house and is putting it on the market. The family is not getting along. I don't care about my mom's possessions. I just don't want her to suffer and I want her wishes to be granted.
It sounds like you need a family meeting of the minds then. The living will is a directive. It is not executable like a normal will is. It depends on what the current wishes are, which means family is going to have to meet to discuss what your mother said, then come to a consensus based on her wishes. If the wishes have not changed since she wrote her directives, then the family can choose to honor them. If they have changed, however, the family can choose to sit on the directives. One big question is who is the healthcare proxy?
As far as I know, my mom never had a change of heart. My dad died after laying in bed for 19 days on life support. My moms mental state today could not make an educated decision.
BTW, it is really a DNR that determines whether to resuscitate or not. There are other parts of the advanced directive regarding using extraordinary measures, respirators, and feeding tubes when there is no hope for life. There is also the establishment of a healthcare proxy to act as your agent. Did your mother have all these things in place?
If her current wish is to be resuscitated, then the old living will is no longer valid. To tell the truth, I don't know if we should consider an old living will, since life and wishes change so much with time. What she wanted 20 years ago may be so different than what she wants now that death is closer. Do you know what your mother's most currents wishes were while she was still able to say? Those are the ones I would abide by.
My mother's living will along with her last will and testament was made twenty years ago. My oldest sibling had my mother supposedly evaluated three years ago and had her change her last will and testament making my oldest sibling executor. Since then, my sibling has put my mother in a nursing home and has been declared incapacitated. She has an I.d. bracelet on her for resuscitation. I love my mother with my whole heart and soul. She weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, does not know most of her children, does not want to eat most things, cannot do for herself, does not remember anything. She sits in a wheel chair and plays her version of solitaire and word search puzzles. If she were resuscitated, I can't imagine what kind of life she would have. All I know is her wishes twenty years ago were not to be resuscitated. I would like to know if her living will is still valid. I would take it to the nursing home if I knew.
I think there's another question here and that's whether or not the Last Will and Testament is valid if the person is not competent (i.e., incapacitated) to make legal decisions. Has this person been so diagnosed by a physician? Or is the incapacitation physical but not mental?
Ditto, the Living Will and Last Will and Testament are 2 different documents, with different purposes. A revised Last Will and Testament doesn't affect a Living Will.
The living will remains valid as long as it is the will of the person. A living will is a strange animal. It can be negated by the person either by rescinding it in writing or simply by uttering that you do not want to honor it. It is guidance, but not legally binding. Three decades ago some hospitals would not even accept living wills and would set them aside if the person or their family protested not trying to keep the person alive. I don't know what their standing is now.
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