Oregon’s Advanced Directive

By Hanah Mirahmadi

Like many states, Oregon has an Advance Directive form.  This form allows you to name a person to make health care decisions for you if you are ill or unable to communicate your choices. The person you name, and any alternates, is called your Healthcare Representative. The Advance Directive allows you to tell your Healthcare Representative what life support measures you prefer.

In the absence of an Advanced Directive, no one legally has the authority to make healthcare decisions for you. Without an Advanced Directive, we may need to go to court to have a guardian appointed for you. A guardian is a person appointed by a court after someone proves by clear and convincing evidence that you cannot make your own healthcare decisions. Getting a guardian appointed is expensive and time consuming, on top of the fact that this would take place at time you are in a medical crisis. Moreover, we do not know who you would have named to be in charge of these important decisions. In this case, it is whoever the court determines is best for you.  Also, we do not know what choices you would have made regarding life support measures. If you complete an Advanced Directive, you have control over these items.

Back in September of 2021, the State of Oregon implemented a new Advance Directive form. Compared to prior Advance Directive forms in Oregon, this new form is quite different. If you have already completed an Advanced Directive in the past that was valid when executed, it is still valid today. It may be worthwhile to update this document if the Health care Representatives you have listed have changed, they have new contact information, or you would like to include special instructions for your Healthcare Representative.

The form begins with instructions on how to complete the document and is followed by Section 2 where you can fill in your name and contact information and the names and contact information of your desired Healthcare Representative and alternates.

Next, Section 3 discusses three conditions in which you could find yourself: terminal condition, advanced progressive illness, and permanently unconscious. For each of these three conditions, the 2021 Oregon Advance Directive form gives you four choices, which are the same for each of the three conditions. From these choices, you can elect varying degrees of life-sustaining treatment or even leave the decision to your Health care Representative.

On the following pages, you can include specific instructions about the kind of care you want and do not want, what you most value about your life, what is important to you, your spiritual beliefs, and your preferred place of care. At our firm, we also offer the option to adopt the Dementia Provision, which expands the scope of the Advanced Directive. This document allows you to specify what treatment you want in the event you have advanced dementia and may live for a very long time with life support.

Give us a call to talk more about Advanced Directives and how we can get one set up for you.