A Representation Agreement made under Section 9 of the Representation Agreement Act allows you to appoint a Representative to make personal and health care decisions for you should you become incapable of making those decisions on your own.
You can appoint one or more persons to act as your Representative. You can choose to have one Representative with one or more alternates or two or more Representatives jointly, who may also act separately.
Examples of the types of decisions your Representative can make are day-to-day decisions about clothing, diet and accommodation as well as major decisions such as consenting to or refusing certain types of health care.1
You can use a Representation Agreement to express your specific wishes in regard to your health care including the consent or refusal of life support. A Representation Agreement will help guide your Representative and loved ones and may relieve some of the weight of these types of decisions.
A lawyer can help you prepare a Representation Agreement. Having a Representation Agreement in place ensures that the person you wish to make health care decisions for you if you become incapable is able to when it becomes necessary to do so.
1REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT ACT [RSBC 1996] CHAPTER 405
http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/ID/freeside/00_96405_01
