by From the National Center for Life and Liberty (NCLL): “The most reliable way to protect yourself and your health care interests is to designate a trusted person or team of persons (2-3) to be your health care agent(s) (sometimes called “health care surrogate” or “proxy”) who is tasked with making medical decisions on your behalf when you are unable to do so. These persons would be named in your health care power of attorney document (these persons hold your “power of attorney”) and would only be able to act on your behalf in the event of your incapacity. … Some people choose to designate a single agent to make routine or non-life-ending medical decisions for them but then have a team of persons who must unanimously or by majority agree upon a course of action if it is likely to result in death (e.g., removing life support of some kind). The benefit of the “team” approach is summed up in Proverbs 11:14: “In the multitude of counselors, there is safety.”
I am no lawyer, so you should seek legal advice concerning any power of attorney (POA). From my research, and as quoted above, it is important that we consider a health POA in our season of life. We want to ensure our wishes are tended to, but also consider a team of decision makers to ease this stress from a single individual.
If we do not have a POA, our family has no legal authority to manage our finances or make medical decisions on our behalf. They will have to go through costly and time-consuming court proceedings to obtain guardianship where the results are unpredictable. Thus, a POA is one of the most important estate planning steps we should take and one of the most distressing if we skip.
In Proverbs 11:14 the word “counsel” means to steer in a direction. This makes it imperative that we give power of attorney only to those we trust, who are aligned in our direction both physically and spiritually.
In Proverbs 1:5 we are told to obtain “wise counsel” while we are “a man of understanding.” Applying this to a health POA, we need to consider this before we lose even the smallest amount of our faculties. If not, the court will appoint medical guardianship, and we are not guaranteed they will be aligned in our physical or spiritual directions.
