Page 64 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2026 - Online Magazine

SENIOR RESOURCES

A Few Words on

Advance Directives in Texas

by Lee Franks

The article presented here is for informational and entertainment purposes and does not constitute legal advice to
anyone. If something I said piqued your interest or appears to apply to a particular problem or subject pertinent to
you, I suggest you seek appropriate counsel. Anyone reading and, I hope, enjoying the content should understand that
I do not represent you unless we have met, and I have agreed to represent you in a given matter.

ecently, my mom was diagnosed with a subdural at all is determined by the attending physician and
hematoma. She’s all good now, but the situation recorded by the physician in the principal’s medical
Rbrought several issues to the forefront that, until chart. Importantly, it is not a document that gives
now, we had let lie. Among those issues were end-of- the agent authority over the principal. The principal
life decisions that we had discussed a little, but I now can revoke the MPOA at any time, regardless of the
realized that first, we needed to look at them in more principal’s competence or mental state. The agent
depth, and second, that a good while had passed since cannot force the principal to take an aspirin much less
they’d first come up and, well, things change, so we require the principal to undergo treatment that the
needed to revisit those discussions. I had prepared my principal does not want. Even so, because the need for
folks’ basic estate planning documents, wills, powers of a medical agent can occur at any time in life, I strongly
attorney, HIPAA Releases, and Directives to Physicians, encourage my clients to consider executing an MPOA,
but at their current time of life, we needed to look at so long as they are competent adults.
them again. More than that, I realized my family’s
recent experiences would now affect the advice I The other documents have more relevance in end-of-
would give or opinions I might share with my clients life situations. The Directive, generally, is a written
in the future. document signed by a declarant instructing providers
and family members to administer or withhold life-
Chapter 166 of the Texas Health and Safety Code sustaining treatment if the declarant is diagnosed
defines an advance directive as 1) an instruction to with either a terminal or irreversible condition. For a
administer, withhold, or withdraw life-sustaining Directive specifically, a terminal condition is incurable
treatment in the event of a terminal or irreversible and will take the life of the declarant within six months
condition (Directive to Physicians), 2) an out-of- regardless of any treatment available consistent with
hospital do not resuscitate order (OOH-DNR), or 3) a the prevailing standard of medical care. On the other
medical power of attorney (MPOA). The same chapter hand, an irreversible condition cannot be cured, leaves
contains provisions for a health care facility do-not- the declarant unable to make decisions or care for
resuscitate order (DNR) which is separate from the first himself, and is fatal without life-sustaining treatment
three but obviously related. including medication, mechanical breathing, dialysis,
and artificial nutrition and hydration. Like the MPOA,
I want to start with the MPOA because it has broader a Directive can become relevant at any stage in life
application. It is important to understand that the due to an accident or illness, and I advise my clients to
MPOA is not a person. It almost always is a written include one in their basic estate planning documents.
document, signed by a principal, naming an agent who
can make medical decisions for the principal if the I treat OOH-DNRs and DNRs differently when I meet
principal is incapable of making medical decisions with clients. I discuss the documents to make them
for himself. Whether the agent can make any decision aware of some factors they should consider when

64 Lubbock Senior Link