http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/index.html LawInfo - Legal Resource Center offers free Maine Estate Planning legal forms and free Maine Estate Planning legal documents that is designed to help consumers and businesses resolve their legal issues http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/can-i-change-any-part-of-this-form.html You may change any part of this form. You can cross out any words, sentences, or paragraphs you do not want. You can also add your own words. The form lets you choose different ways to handle your care by checking boxes or filling in the blanks. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/does-it-have-to-be-notarized.html You do not need to have an Advance Directive form notarized to make it legal in Maine, but you do need two witnesses to sign it. However, if you travel or live part of the year out­of­state, it would be wise to have it signed by a Notary. Some states require this. You can find this service under Notary Public in the phone book. Most banks also have a Notary Pubic and will usually notarize papers for bank customers when asked. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/does-my-doctor-have-to-follow-my-choices.html Yes. If your doctor, hospital, or other place of health care has any special rules about health care decisions, or if they will not carry out your decisions, they must tell you. They must then arrange to move you to a doctor, hospital, or other place that will carry out your decisions. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/how-does-an-advance-directive-help-.html If you sign an advance directive, your family and your doctor will know who to talk to about your care or what kinds of treatment you want or don't want when you are too sick to decide. This could happen if you have a serious illness or are near the end of life. If doctors don't know your wishes, they will treat you until they can ask your family what you want. If your family doesn't know, you may get treatments you don't want or which you would stop if you had your way. In an emergency you will receive care until the doctors can determine your condition and what your wishes are. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-does-an-advance-directive-allow-me-to-do.html The advance directive form allows you to do four things. You choose someone to make all your health care decisions beginning either right away or when you are too sick to decide. That person is called your agent. Your agent can be a family member or friend. If you choose an agent, two (2) witnesses must sign your advance directive. You choose whether or not you want certain treatments when you are very ill or may not live. For example, you can choose what you wish to have done, if you are dying, or if you are in a permanent coma. Your agent must follow any choices you make in an advance directive. You state a desire to donate your organs. (Your family will make the final decision, but this will tell them your wishes). Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-else-should-i-know-about-advance-directi.html Every hospital and many other places that provide health care in Maine have these forms or can tell you how to get them. Just ask your doctor or nurse. They can explain the forms, but they cannot give you legal advice. No one can make you sign a form or stop you from signing it. You also have the right to change or cancel a form at any time. The advance health care directive form does not allow others to control your money or property. It does not allow anyone to violate laws against mercy killing and euthanasia. If you have a complaint about how a hospital or other place of health care handled your advance directive, you can contact: Licensing Division Maine Department of Human Services 221 State Street Augusta, Maine 04333 (207) 624­5443 Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-happens-if-i-do-not-make-an-advance-dire.html Your family can tell your doctor to continue to treat you. They can also tell your doctor to stop or not give treatment to keep you alive (life sustaining treatment) if you are dying or in a permanent coma. Family members may not, however, be able to make other decisions for you unless you name one of them as your agent in your advance directive. If the doctor can't reach a family member, the doctor may ask another adult relative or good friend who knows your values. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-happens-to-the-living-will-after-i-have.html Your doctor will put the Living Will in your medical record, where everyone involved in your care should see it. Later on, if you are dying or in a persistent vegetative state, the doctor caring for you will follow the directions in your Living Will. If the doctor is not willing to follow your directions because of the doctor's own personal or religious beliefs, he or she must transfer you to the care of another doctor who will follow your directions. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:51:22 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-if-i-want-to-change-my-mind.html You have the right to cancel or replace this form at any time. To cancel the form, write, "cancelled" in large letters and the date on your original. Tell each person and place you gave a copy that you have cancelled the form. Ask them to mark their records, and give them a copy or any new form you may fill out. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-if-suffer-from-a-mental-health-problem.html You may also choose to sign a different form, called a mental health directive, that allows you to choose what treatment you want if you become very mentally ill and are unable to make health care decisions. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-is-a-living-will.html A living will is a written statement in which you inform doctors and family members what type of medical care you wish to receive should you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious, and unable to make or communicate decisions about your continued care. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-is-an-advance-directive.html Any spoken or written decision or instruction about the health care you want in the future is called an advance directive. You can tell your doctor or family what you want. But it's best to write it down. Advance directives also are sometimes called living wills. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/what-rights-do-i-have-as-a-patient.html When you need medical care, you have certain rights, including the right to refuse care. You have a right to know what your medical problem is and what tests and treatments may be needed, what the doctor thinks can be done and what the usual risks may be, if there are other ways to care for you and what may happen if you refuse care. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/when-does-my-advance-directive-go-into-effect.html Unless you state something different, your advance directive will be used only when you are too sick to choose your care or tell others what care you want. Your doctor will help decide if and when that time has come and when your advance directive should be used. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/who-can-complete-an-advance-directive.html Anyone living in Maine who is 18 years of age or older can complete an advance directive. If you are younger than 18 you may also be able to complete an advance directive under certain, limited circumstances. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/who-should-i-tell-about-my-advance-directive.html Tell your family members, doctors, and others close to you what you have decided. You should talk to the agent(s) you have chosen to make sure that they understand your wishes and are willing to carry them out. Give a copy of this form to your doctor, to any other health care providers you have, to any place where you get health care, and to any agents you have chosen in Part 1. Please be sure to list on the front page, the people who have copies. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/who-will-decide-my-care-when-im-too-sick-to-c.html If you do not name an agent or do not have an advance directive, the doctor will ask your family what treatment you would want, in this order: spouse (unless legally separated), adult children, parents, adult brothers and sisters, adult grandchildren, adult nieces and nephews, adult aunts and uncles. If there are family members whom you do not want to make decisions for you, you need to put this in writing and give it to your doctor or hospital. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/will-emergency-medical-personnel-honor-my-liv.html Sometimes people who have signed Living Wills are surprised and upset when emergency medical personnel disregard the Living Will and administer life­support anyway. The reason that this may happen is that, in an emergency, the staff may not have time to read the Living Will, to make sure that the patient is in a terminal condition and that it is indeed appropriate to withdraw treatment. If you are already in a terminal condition and feel strongly that you do not want to be given life­support under any circumstances, you should talk to your doctor. Your doctor may be able to notify the ambulance service and the emergency room that they should not give life­support and that they should only give you treatment that will ease your pain and keep you comfortable. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/will-my-living-will-executed-in-maine-be-hono.html It is possible that you may get sick, injured, or have to go to a hospital while visiting in another state. You should carry a copy of your Living Will with you in your wallet or purse, since your medical record will not be available right away to the doctors there. You should also have your Living Will witnessed by a notary public or attorney if you travel sometimes and are concerned about how your Living Will may be treated in another state. Whether the doctors there follow your directions depends on whether that state has a Living Will law similar to Maine's. As of June 1992, at least 41 states recognized Living Wills. Maine Estate Planning FAQs Tue, 29 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/Estate-Planning/Maine/will-signing-a-living-will-affect-my-insuranc.html The law says that insurance companies may not base anything in an existing or future life insurance policy on whether a person does or does not have a Living Will. 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