Let your health care directive speak for you in case you can't.

A health care directive is a document that provides instructions regarding end-of-life care. Health care directives allow you to make your own choices about life support and helps prevent confusion about the type of care you do or do not want in the event you become incapable of communicating your wishes. Without a health care directive, the California code will determine who will make your health care decisions.

Your state's law says who'll make your health care decisions if you don't have an advance directive. If no one is designated, a judge might decide who gets to make those decisions, and that person would do so without written guidance from you.

You can choose to have your life prolonged as much as reasonably possible by procedures like tube feeding or mechanical respiration. Or you can say you don't want to be kept alive by artificial means. You also can name someone to be in charge of making sure your wishes are honored, and to make other health care decisions for you.