A Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows you to choose one or more people to make decisions in areas such as medical treatment. This Power of Attorney can only be used when you are unable to make decisions for yourself.

Within a Health and Welfare LPA, you are able to choose what you’d want to happen if you needed medical help to keep you alive when you no longer have the mental capacity to make the decision. This is relevant if you were to undergo life-sustaining treatment such as care, surgery or medication. On your LPA, you can either prevent your attorneys from having the authority to give or refuse consent to life-sustaining treatment, in which case the doctors will make the decision; or you can allow your attorneys to make the decision on your behalf. You can also state preferences and give your attorneys instructions as to what you would want to happen in certain situations.

For example: “If I were in the last days of a terminal illness, I would only want treatments to make me comfortable. I wouldn’t want treatments to prolong my life or that meant I couldn’t die at home” or “My attorneys must not agree to life-sustaining treatment if I am in a persistent vegetative state”.