More than two-thirds of middle-aged Americans haven't planned how medical decisions should be made for them if they can't speak for themselves, according to a recent poll by the Associated Press-Life Goes Strong.

The reason the respondents most often gave for not having assigned a health care proxy or crafted a living will is that they are healthy and think making such plans is for old people.

Wrong, says Maureen Henry, a lawyer and author of Utah's advance directive statute.

She urges everyone age 18 and older to name a health care proxy and make sure that person's name is on an advance health care directive.

The website of Utah Commission on Aging, which Henry directs, offers documents to help state residents take responsibility for the end of their lives.

The Utah Legislature has passed bills governing how that may be done, outlined in the state's Tool Kit for Advance Health Care Planning. It can be found on the University of Utah Center on Aging website.

Among the options in Utah:

• Revokable living trusts. These are typically lengthy legal documents meant to guide a person's agent, also known as a health care proxy or successor trustee, who will have the right to make medical and financial decisions for an incapacitated relative or friend.

• Advance directives. These articulate a person's general end-of-life instructions for today and into the future.

• Utah Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment, or POLST. This is a "life with dignity" form a doctor fills out in conjunction with a patient, spelling out what to do if the patient can no longer advocate for himself or herself.

The difference between the advance directive and a POLST?

The POLST is a short-form translation of the advance directive, an order a doctor can use right now for specific, acute conditions. It can include a DNR — do not resuscitate — or orders for every possible life-saving treatment.

Henry said the POLST offers clearer immediate direction in a crisis. An ER doctor doesn't have the time or expertise to wade through a trust document's legalese, she says.

"Essentially, there's too much information for an emergency-room situation," Henry said. "If there's a question, you always try to keep the person alive." —

Tool kit for advance health-care planning

The University of Utah Center on Aging website has information for people who want to plan treatment and the end of their lives: aging.utah.edu/directives/