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An Opportunity For Your Decisions To Matter

By Sister Nora Phelan

On April 16, more than 65 prominent national healthcare, religious and legal associations and organizations will join countless local and state organizations in participating in the inaugural National Healthcare Decisions Day. At every level, the goal of this nationwide initiative is to ensure that all adults with decision-making capacity in America have both the information and the opportunity to communicate and document their future healthcare decisions.

While making healthcare decisions is often difficult in the best of circumstances, making decisions for others can be even more so. Each of us has the ability to guide our healthcare providers and our loved ones concerning our healthcare wishes. Advance directives, most especially the durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions, gives you the opportunity to document the healthcare interventions you do or do not want and to name an "agent" to speak for you if you cannot speak for yourself. Consequently, having an advance directive can be valuable for all adults, regardless of current age or health status.

With the Patient Self Determination Act of 1990, Congress affirmed the right of every citizen to set forth his or her healthcare wishes in writing with an advance directive. Yet various estimates suggest that fewer than 25 percent of all Americans have an advance directive. For a relatively easy action that can be done without the assistance of a lawyer and at no cost, this figure is astonishingly low.

In recognition of this, National Healthcare Decisions Day was established to provide much-needed information to the public, reduce the tragedies that occur when a person's wishes are unknown, and improve the ability of healthcare facilities and providers to offer informed and thoughtful guidance about advanced healthcare planning to their patients.

Please visit www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org for free information, state-specific advance directive forms and other tools designed to help you with thoughtful reflection in making healthcare choices.

With healthcare, your decisions matter—but others need to know your wishes in order to honor and follow them. Letting your loved ones, primary care physician, person you have selected to act as your agent or others know what you would want is a gift to yourself and to those who care about you. One of the best ways to do this is by clearly documenting and communicating your healthcare wishes through an advance directive.

Please use April 16 to decide, discuss and document your wishes regarding your healthcare choices. However, if you cannot complete an advance directive on that date, do not let that keep you from doing so. You can still offer that gift of thought and communication of your wishes to yourself and those who care for and about you.

Sister Nora Phelan, CSJ. D. Min

Director of Ethics, Via Christi Wichita Health Network

Prayer for the unborn

By Tony Briseno

As we prepare to go into the election at the end of this year, I do not believe that at anytime, or at any previous election, are our prayers more critical.  Prayers for the protection of the unborn by the person that we put into the highest office of the land. 

Of course, I speak of that person believing in the sanctity of life by their pro-life views.  We have murdered 50 million future productive human beings, how many more will it take before we realize how atrocious and God-offensive the Roe vs Wade law is. 

How many doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers, mothers, fathers, priests, nuns and just good ordinary human beings have been lost forever to the good of humanity.

Not only does the Lord want us to ask for His help through prayer, but He expects us to put feet to our prayers and do our part.  Carefully examine the candidate that you have considered voting for, how does he or she look at the issue of abortion, are they pro-life or pro-choice. 

The pro-life movement has a growing momentum.  This was proven by the large number attending the rally in Washington, D.C., and the West Coast this year.  In fact, the greatest number of attendees were young people.   It has also been determined that nation-wide the number of abortions has decreased. 

We cannot lose this momentum.  In the last few years two pro-life judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court and there is soon to be another vacancy.  That is why your vote this year is so critical, we need the next appointee to be another pro-life judge, appointed by a pro-life president.  PRAY! PRAY!

Briseno lives in Hutchinson.