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Originally Posted by maggie1
This is crazy! Pink paper, yellow paper, white paper, and I imagine other states have a different color paper they would accept. If a person goes toes up in a state requiring a certain color of paper for a DNRO to be honored, and the party has a DNRO, but not in the correct color, the person could linger in the hospital for days before the end. Why in the world would there not be a standard form that would be honored by all states? This isn't a difficult problem to solve if only the states would use common sense, but I know common sense is not a strong point in government.
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I don't specifically know what the point of the colored paper is. Obviously, there have been issues (forgeries?) that they are attempting to mitigate using colored paper.
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This isn't a difficult problem to solve if only the states would use common sense,
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It inherently IS a difficult issue but, it's not the states that are lacking, it's THE FAMILIES. Often times, relationships are not good or communication is poor, some members don't understand the issues, some don't
want to understand them, some have particular motivations, etc. The families are where the difficulty is.
Frankly, people being so ultra-focused on the DNR and DRNO are missing the larger and more important instructions. Let me use the state of NC as an example....they call it: an Advanced Directive or Living Will (because it covers several health situations, not just DNR).That is where my mother lived for decades. She filled out a Living Will in 1994. Unfortunately, neither she nor my brother, who was her POA, sought to update it all those decades since. Hers was one page, but when she got very sick in 2021 and we scrambled to do an update, it had become four pages and rightfully so. The state of NC realized that there is much more nuance to these situations so, greater specificity was needed.
Here is the link to the most current (I think) version of it and it's well worth your time to scan it, then you'll understand the breadth of it beyond just DNR. Also,
I direct you to the text on bottom of page 3/top of page 4. Notice how they want the witness to be someone in no way related to, medically-treating or a beneficiary of the estate. So, in NC, they don't want your Doctor, any employee of theirs or of a facility where you might be living to be signing it.
Obviously, all of that is there because there have been problems in the past. https://www.sosnc.gov/webfiles/docum...ural_death.pdf
The reasons it's important to update these Directives/Living Wills every ten years or so, is:
a) I imagine you might answer the questions differently when you're 65 and in good health versus when you're 85 or 90 and maybe not in great health. I know I would. Sure, save me when I'm still fairly young and can recover from whatever health issue and go on to live a nice life. No, I don't want to be saved when I'm very aged, in declining health and especially if I would become wheelchair-bound upon recovery when elderly (life becomes prison-like).
b) The forms change....as I described with my mothers situation in NC. Older ones might still be honored but, it's better to be fairly up-to-date to avoid any problems.