Advance Health Care Directives are documents that grants to specifically-named and trusted “health care” agents the authority to make health care decisions for an individual in the event of such individual’s incapacity.  These decisions include, among others:

• Who will be the person(s) in charge of my medical decisions if I do not have the capacity to make them myself?
• Do I want my life to be prolonged in the event of an incurable illness that will result in my death within a relatively short time, if the risks and burdens of treatment outweigh the benefits?
• Do I want pain relief?
• Do I want to be buried or cremated?