Enduring Powers of Attorney - Personal Care and Welfare

November 2006

A lot of people are familiar with the concept of a Power of Attorney for property - granting another person the ability to make decisions for you, or to sign documents on your behalf in relation to assets or other obligations such as your house, cancellation of insurance contracts etc. What most people are not so familiar with is the Power of Attorney in relation to your personal care and welfare.

November 2006

A Power of Attorney in relation to personal care and welfare appoints another person to make decisions on your behalf in the event that you are not able to do this. This view perhaps best highlighted recently by the well covered case in America of Terri Schiavo. Terri collapsed at home in 1990, was in a coma for 10 weeks and three years later was declared to be in a "persistent vegetative state" (PVS). Terri's husband then fought with her parents to remove her feeding tube until this was eventually ordered to be removed and she was allowed to pass away in 2005.

Aside from the sheer sadness of this situation, the legal battles could have been severely shortened if it had been clear to the courts whom Terri appointed as the person to make this decision for her. Because she hadn't appointed either her parents or her husband as having her power of attorney in relation to her personal care and welfare, they had to fight each other in court for many years.

Creating a Power of Attorney in relation to personal care and welfare is a relatively simple document and is something that you should consider doing now or when you next update your will.