To fill out a living will, download the form your state publishes, work through the treatment questions it asks, name a healthcare agent and a backup, and then sign it in front of the witnesses — and, in some states, the notary — your state requires. The document has no legal force until it is executed correctly, so the signing step matters as much as the choices you record on the page.
Decide What You Want Before You Open the Form
The form will ask you to accept or refuse specific interventions. Encountering those questions cold, in checkbox form, is how people end up with directives that don’t actually reflect what they want. Talk with your doctor first about what each treatment looks like in practice, because long-term ventilation or tube feeding often differs from what people picture.
Most state forms cover some combination of these decisions:
- CPR and resuscitation if your heart or breathing stops.
- Mechanical ventilation if you can’t breathe on your own.
- Artificial nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube or IV.
- Pain management and comfort care, and whether you prefer comfort-focused care over treatment aimed at extending life.1Mayo Clinic. Living Wills and Advance Directives for Medical Decisions
- Antibiotics and antivirals near the end of life.
- Organ, tissue, or whole-body donation after death.2National Institute on Aging. Preparing a Living Will
Your answers don’t have to be all-or-nothing. You can accept a ventilator for a limited trial period but not indefinitely, or ask for comfort care only if your condition is terminal while still wanting aggressive treatment where recovery is possible. The more specific you are, the less room there is for disagreement later.
Pick Your Healthcare Agent and a Backup
Most state forms include a section naming the person who speaks for you when you can’t. This agent has legal authority to make medical decisions on your behalf, including decisions your written instructions don’t specifically cover.3National Institute on Aging. Choosing a Health Care Proxy No form can anticipate every scenario, so the person you choose has to understand your values well enough to extrapolate.
Choose someone willing to advocate for your wishes under pressure from other family members or medical staff, not just the person you’re closest to. Have a direct conversation about what you’d want in different scenarios, including the uncomfortable ones. Name at least one successor agent in case your first choice is unreachable. Before you fill in the form, gather each person’s full legal name, address, phone number, and relationship to you. Use phone numbers that will actually be answered in an emergency, not a work line that rolls to voicemail after hours.
Get the Right Form for Your State
Every state sets its own requirements for a valid living will, so start with a form built for your state. Your state’s health department or bar association site typically offers a free download, and national organizations focused on advance care planning publish state-specific templates at no cost.2National Institute on Aging. Preparing a Living Will
You don’t need a lawyer to complete or execute a living will in most states.1Mayo Clinic. Living Wills and Advance Directives for Medical Decisions An attorney is worth the cost, typically a few hundred dollars, if you have a complex family situation, property in multiple states, or medical circumstances where standard form language doesn’t fit. For most people, the free state form is enough.
Work Through the Form Section by Section
Identification
Enter your full legal name, address, and date of birth exactly as they appear on your government-issued ID. A nickname or an outdated address can create problems when a hospital tries to match the document to your records.
Healthcare Agent
Write in your primary agent’s full legal name, address, phone number, and relationship. Do the same for any successor agent. Double-check the phone numbers.
Treatment Preferences
This is where your earlier thinking pays off. Most forms use checkboxes, fill-in-the-blank lines, or a combination. Read each option carefully. Some forms phrase the question as “I do want this treatment” while others ask “I do not want this treatment,” and checking the wrong box reverses your intent entirely. If the form gives you space for written instructions, use it to add context the checkboxes can’t capture, such as wanting a ventilator tried for up to 72 hours but withdrawn if there is no improvement.
Donation and Other Preferences
Complete any sections on organ or tissue donation and any additional-instructions field. Then review every page. A missing checkbox or blank field can leave a critical decision ambiguous.
Sign It the Way Your State Requires
A living will has no legal force until it is properly executed, and execution requirements vary significantly by state. This is the single most common place people end up with a document that looks official but doesn’t hold up.
Witnesses
Most states require two adult witnesses to watch you sign and then sign themselves, attesting that you appeared to understand what you were signing and did so voluntarily. Witness disqualification rules exist to prevent conflicts of interest. The specifics vary, but witnesses generally cannot be anyone who stands to inherit from you, is related to you by blood or marriage, or is directly involved in your medical care. In some states, your healthcare agent can’t serve as a witness either. The safest approach is to use two adults with no personal or financial stake in your medical decisions.
Notarization
Some states require only witnesses. Some let you choose between witnesses and notarization. A few require both. If notarization applies, a notary public will verify your identity and watch you sign, and the notary typically can’t also count as one of your witnesses on the same document. The form’s own instructions almost always spell out the execution requirements; follow them exactly.
Know What a Living Will Won’t Do
A living will does not stop paramedics from performing CPR. If your heart stops and someone calls 911, first responders are legally required to attempt resuscitation unless they see a signed Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. EMTs in the field don’t have time to read a multi-page legal document, and a living will doesn’t carry the same weight as a medical order in an emergency.
A DNR is a medical order signed by a physician that specifically instructs providers not to perform CPR. If you want to avoid resuscitation, you need both a living will for the broader treatment picture and a signed DNR for the specific emergency scenario. Talk with your doctor about getting one.
Many states also offer a POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) or a similarly named form. A POLST translates your wishes into portable medical orders covering ventilators, hospitalization, and other interventions in addition to CPR.4National POLST. National POLST Collaborative – Portable Medical Orders Because a POLST is a physician’s order rather than a personal legal document, it carries immediate authority with first responders and hospital staff. POLST forms are generally designed for people who are seriously ill or near the end of life, not for healthy adults planning ahead. Your doctor can tell you whether one is appropriate for you.
Store and Share Copies
A living will locked in a safe deposit box that nobody can access during an emergency is useless. Keep the original somewhere secure but reachable at home. Give copies to your healthcare agent, your backup agent, your primary care physician, and any specialists who manage ongoing conditions. If you’re admitted to a hospital or nursing home, bring a copy. Federal law requires those facilities to ask whether you have an advance directive and document your wishes in your medical record.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1395cc – Agreements With Providers of Services
Carry a wallet card noting that you have a living will, naming your healthcare agent, and stating where a copy can be found.1Mayo Clinic. Living Wills and Advance Directives for Medical Decisions Some states maintain electronic registries where you can upload the directive so hospitals can retrieve it even when you’re away from home. Private registry services also exist. If you split time between two states, consider having an attorney in the second state review your document to confirm it meets local requirements.
Pregnancy Exclusions to Be Aware Of
A significant number of states have laws that restrict or completely override a living will if the patient is pregnant. A 2019 systematic review found that 31 states restricted the ability to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient, and 26 of those states specifically invalidated the patient’s advance directive during pregnancy.6National Library of Medicine. US State Regulation of Decisions for Pregnant Women Some states impose the restriction only when a physician believes the fetus could survive with continued treatment; others maintain it throughout the entire pregnancy regardless of viability. These provisions are being challenged in court, and several states have removed their exclusions in recent years. If this issue affects you, check your state’s current law.
Review and Update It
A living will isn’t a one-and-done document. The National Institute on Aging recommends reviewing it at least once a year and immediately after any major life event.2National Institute on Aging. Preparing a Living Will Trigger a review after a divorce or remarriage (your ex-spouse may still be named as your agent), the death or incapacity of your agent, a new medical diagnosis, a move to a different state, or any change in your values about medical care.
You can revoke a living will at any time, for any reason, as long as you still have decision-making capacity. The usual methods are executing a new document that expressly replaces the old one, physically destroying the original, or providing a written revocation. Most states also allow oral revocation by telling your doctor directly, though getting it in writing is more reliable. Whichever method you use, notify everyone who has a copy, including your agents, physicians, and any hospital or registry where the document is on file. An old version in a doctor’s chart can cause real confusion if it contradicts your current wishes.