when the patient owner of the hcpa becomes too ill to communicate their wishes about their medical care to others the hcpa becomes activated meaning that the person you named in the document has the power to make life and death decisions about and for you now hcpa refers to both the hcpa document and the person you named in it 
an hcpa could say to my doctors for example if carla cannot breathe on her own then she does not want any life saving measures to be taken for her aside from specific directives like this one you can include in your hcpa filing more general insights such as your religious beliefs morals and basic ethical values choosing a healthcare proxynaming a healthcare power of attorney is an important step toward caring for yourself having an hcpa lets everyone including your doctors know the exact nature of your wishes were you to face big medical decisions but be unable to communicate knowing your wishes can help lift the burden of trying to guess what they are from others the more they know about your treatment preferences the smoother your care can be it is an understatement to say that you must trust your hcpa of course you should trust them but because you ll be sharing intimate self knowledge with this person you also need to have a special rapport with them relaxed enough to be your true self no holds barred this is true no matter what other roles your hcpa serves vis vis you so before choosing an hcpa consider carefully however relationships change as do our feelings toward others so what if you feel that you ve made a mistake you are truly free to choose anyone you want as your healthcare proxy this includes the freedom to reverse your decision at any time if you want to assign a new hcpa just eradicate the original document and create a new one designating the new hcpa not everyone has an hcpa but if more people understood this term perhaps they would see the benefit of assigning one 