Health Care Directive

    I would pick a family member to be my agent, such as my mom or my brother, and let them make all decisions because I can’t think of anything that I would exclude from their power. If I am not able to make a decision, someone has to, or else the doctor, who most likely does not know me beyond just one of his patients, will be the one to make the decision 

    I think the second part of this decision, the agent’s authority, is difficult to think about. Thinking about what kind of decisions an agent can and cannot make for you while you are incapable is overwhelming. What do they need to decide on exactly? Will we not even know until that moment? After all, we can’t think of everything right now, that’s too much unknown territory, which is why I’m sure most people leave it blank.

   Personally, I think filling out this form is probably something that most people don’t do. It’s difficult to think about dying and what happens after you enter in to a state of dying, which is something Gawande emphasizes in his book as well. We don’t want to think about dying, so we try to prevent it rather than think about the things that need to be done when we reach this inevitable fate.