Virginia Advance Directives
One special power that you can give your agent in your Advance Directive is the power to authorize health care treatment over your objection.
Your power to say “No” to certain types of health care treatment is a power that Virginia takes very seriously. In most cases, you are able to refuse treatment, even if you have been found to be incapacitated. However, some people know that there may be times in the future when they are not thinking very clearly – they know that they might refuse treatment that they would actually want if they were not sick or injured.
In order to help people get the treatment that they want, even if they refuse it when they are sick, Virginia allows this option in ADs. This option gives your agent the power to tell your doctor to ignore you when you are saying “No” to treatment. But your agent should still talk to you to find out why you are refusing before acting over your objection. And your objections about end-of-life care are always honored.
You may hear this power called by its nickname, “The Ulysses Clause,” because of a connection to an ancient Greek story about a captain who told his crew to act over his objections.
Your options for this section of your AD
You can choose not to give your agent this power by crossing out this section.
You can choose to give your agent this power:
a. For all health care decisions, or
b. For some health care decisions, but not others.
Extra requirement for this special power
Because this section gives your agent a lot of power, the state of Virginia wants to make sure that you fully understand it. To check your understanding, you need to talk to a physician or licensed clinical psychologist about it. If the doctor thinks you understand the power, then he/she must sign his/her name on that page, saying that you understand the consequences of giving this power to your agent.