Kelly & West Attorneys
A Health Care Power of Attorney is a document that enables you to designate a person to make health care decisions on your behalf if you are unconscious, mentally incompetent, or unable to make these decisions on your own. The person whom you give this authority to is called an agent. And you, the grantor of the power, are called the principal.
Exercising one of these documents does not mean that you give up the right to make your own health care decisions immediately. Rather, the power only goes into effect if you are unable to make the decisions for yourself. Your agent has no authority over your health care decisions until you become unable to either give, withdraw, or withhold consent over your medical treatment.
A Health Care Power of Attorney is different from a Living Will. While a Living Will allows you to make known what you want to happen in case life-sustaining procedures are necessary, it does not allow you to appoint an agent to make health care decisions for you in the event of your incompetency or inability to make these decisions. It is important that you have a Health Care Power of Attorney in case you become incapacitated or incompetent so that you can be assured that the person you want making the decisions about your care is a person you trust to make the decision you want made. A Health Care Power of Attorney can also contain the same language as that of a Living Will so that one document serves both purposes.
If you would like to talk with an experienced and caring Raleigh health care power of attorney, please contact us.
“Reggie Kelly is a fantastic attorney with fantastic paralegals. My wife and I have been using him and his firm since 1983 when we first purchased property in Harnett County 37 years ago. He offers excellent legal advice and guidance. He never gets in a hurry to get us out the door because of his next appointment. He always takes the time needed to check out all of the issues that might come up. Reggie Kelly is a proud American and he loves our country and he wants everyone to do well. Reggie Kelly is an even finer person than he is a fantastic attorney and we are very fortunate to also be able to call him and his wife Cheryl our friends. We give him a 10 STAR Review!”
