End-of-life decisions as an attorney
Guidance from Estate Advisory Group
The legal question is always the same: what would the donor want, and what is in their best interests now?
Decisions you may face
- Moving from active treatment to palliative care.
- Hospice, hospital, care home or home as the place of death.
- Clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, where the LPA gives you that power.
- Whether to consent to a treatment with a small chance of benefit and a heavy burden.
How to decide well
- Start from anything the donor said or wrote, including any advance decision or ReSPECT record.
- Ask clinicians for the realistic outcomes, not just the options.
- Consult the family and record their views, while remembering the decision is the donor's interests, not the family's wishes.
- Write down what you decided and why, on the day.
Limits
No LPA can authorise assisted dying
An attorney can refuse or consent to treatment. Nothing in a Lasting Power of Attorney permits anyone to end the donor's life, and any instruction attempting it is invalid.
Common questions
Can I insist my parent dies at home?
You can decide on place of care in their best interests where they lack capacity, subject to what is clinically and practically possible.
Do I need the whole family to agree?
No, but you must consult them, and unresolved disagreement can be taken to the Court of Protection.
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This is general information about how Lasting Powers of Attorney work in England and Wales. It is not legal advice about your situation. What we do and do not do.
Published by Estate Advisory Group