The Living Will: Understanding Advance Directives in Illinois
At AdvanceDirectivesHelp.org, we believe everyone deserves to have their healthcare wishes honored.
Discover what Advance Directives are and why it's crucial for adults in Illinois to make their medical preferences known.
This website will hopefully help to educate you and provide a better understanding of each Illinois advance directive introduced.
What is a living will?
The Illinois advance directive known as the Living Will is a legal document that has previously recorded your specific healthcare wishes in the event you are unable to do so.
This serves as a proactive healthcare directive that will act as your voice regarding healthcare decisions if you are incapacitated and unable to communicate them yourself.
This legal document allows you to proactively (refuse or allow) specific healthcare treatments and/or interventions in accordance with your previously recorded wishes, beliefs and documented intent.
This advance directive also allows you to have life-prolonging interventions withheld or withdrawn in the event you are deemed terminal by a physician.
(Illinois Department on Aging, n.d.).
Why every adult in Illinois needs a living will
Every adult over the age of 18 in Illinois should consider establishing a living will to ensure their healthcare autonomy is respected and followed in accordance with their wishes.
The living will can help serve as a roadmap for your future healthcare decisions and wishes.
This proactive Illinois advance directive document can potentially ease the fears, uncertainty or burden of decision making by your family and healthcare decision makers if you are unable to do so.
(Illinois Department on Aging, n.d.).
Clearing up common questions and misconceptions about living wills
It's important to clarify what a living will does and does not cover.
- A living will does not pertain to financial matters such as property, bank accounts, or the distribution of your assets upon your passing. Its sole purpose is for healthcare decisions (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d.).
- A living will serves as a pre-arranged healthcare guide for anyone acting as your healthcare decision maker (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d.).
- The Illinois living will can communicate and outline all care support wishes you have decided on and recorded in the presence of two witnesses (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d.).
- A living will only becomes active if you become incapacitated due to physical, mental, or psychological impairment, rendering you unable to make medical decisions for yourself (Advance Directives, 2026).
- While a living will can serve as a healthcare decision making guide, it's crucial to understand some limitations and caveats that govern its use.
- You can request to refuse CPR, ventilator support or cardioversion interventions (electric shock to restart your heart), however this only states your wishes and desired healthcare intent and it is not recognized as a physicians order (Advance Directives, 2026).
- Only the Illinois advance directives known as the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or the Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) are recognized by healthcare providers as actual physician orders (Advance Directives, 2026).
Click on the Green Web Link Right Above this Message to get Your Own Living Will Advance Directive Form
If you are interested in learning about other advance directives, look at the list of other topics available at the top of this page.