Off The Clock
Off The Clock
Lifetime Planning Updates Specific to the Advance Health Care Directive
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In this episode of Off the Clock, our attorney Katie S. Heald unpacks two important updates to Delaware's incapacity planning landscape. First exploring the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act (UHCDA), which took effect September 30, 2025 and reshapes how incapacity is determined, reduces signing formalities, extends support for mental health care, and modernizes the list of default surrogates. Katie also addresses the End-of-Life Options Act, signed into law on May 20, 2025, which allows terminally ill Delaware residents with decision-making capacity to request medication to end their life under a carefully structured set of safeguards. Katie walks through the qualification requirements, the protections built into the law, and the questions clients are asking most often, including how this new law relates to an existing Advance Health Care Directive.