By Carole B. Larkin Alzheimer’s Reading Room With these legal documents in hand — Do Not Resuscitate (DNR), Medical Power of Attorney (POA) and Advance Directive (AD) you have one thing — Legal Control. Without these properly executed documents you have no control over medical decisions and treatments. With them you have a fighting chance of having a say over medical treatment — and life/death decisions. With Alzheimer’s or another cognitive illness, you need to understand that eventually your loved one won’t have the ability to make the reasoned decision needed for their best interest. And, it is likely the day will come sooner than you think. You need to get these legal matters taken care of today! Sound urgent? It is! Here’s why. If you wait, and cousin Freddy, or the hospital administrator, or a doctor, can show that your loved one, Mary, wasn’t “competent” (in a legal sense) to understand the papers she signed — your control is out the window. Say cousin Freddy’s spiritual beliefs mandate that he make every effort to save a life — no matter how ‘terminal’ Mary is. All he has to do is show that Mary wasn’t competent to sign the papers that say that Mary doesn’t want extraordinary procedures to extend her life. Disputing Mary’s competency is a mechanism that accomplishes the goal of extending Mary’s life as long as possible and subverting Mary’s wishes and your goal of carrying out Mary’s wishes on her behalf. Often the hospital is inclined to support this legal mechanism. Why? Both for financial reasons and because extending life is what they do. So you need to get all the legal papers signed early on in the disease, or as early as you can (and hope cousin Freddy doesn’t read this).

Original Source of Alzheimer’s Disease: Do Not Resuscitate, Power of Attorney, Advance Directive