A living will is a written declaration of what medical treatment you do or do not want if you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and cannot speak for yourself. It answers, in advance, the questions that otherwise fall on a grieving family at the worst possible moment.
This template covers the decisions that matter most: life support, feeding tubes, CPR, comfort care, and organ donation, each stated as a clear directive to your providers. Download it in Word and PDF, then sign it with the witnesses your state requires.
What a living will covers, and when it applies
A living will only speaks when two things are true at the same time: you cannot make or communicate decisions, and physicians have certified a qualifying condition, typically a terminal illness or permanent unconsciousness. Until then, it has no effect and you make all your own decisions. Within its scope, it directs providers on life-sustaining treatment, artificial nutrition and hydration, resuscitation, and comfort care. It does not name a decision maker: that is the job of a medical power of attorney.
Why feeding tubes get their own question
In many states, artificial nutrition and hydration are legally distinct from other life-sustaining treatment: a general refusal of life support does not always reach a feeding tube unless the document says so expressly. High-profile court battles have turned on exactly this gap. This template asks the question separately so your declaration cannot be misread either way.
A living will is not a DNR order
Emergency responders outside a hospital follow physician-signed portable orders (DNR or POLST), not living wills. If you do not want resuscitation attempted at home, ask your physician about your state's portable order in addition to this declaration.
Making sure your living will is actually followed
- Sign it correctly: most states require two disinterested adult witnesses; several accept or add a notary. Follow your state's rule exactly.
- Distribute it: give copies to your physician, your hospital, your family, and your health care agent. A living will locked in a drawer protects no one.
- Pair it with an agent: a medical power of attorney covers the situations your living will does not anticipate.
- Revisit it: review after every major diagnosis, decade of life, or family change, and re-sign if your wishes evolve.
A living will speaks for itself; a medical power of attorney names a person to decide anything the document does not cover. Many states combine both in an advance healthcare directive, and your last will and testament handles everything that happens after death.
When to create a living will
The instinct is to treat a living will as a document for the elderly or the seriously ill. The cases that made this document famous involved healthy people in their twenties, incapacitated without warning, whose families then fought for years over what they would have wanted. Any adult can complete one, and the best time is when the questions are entirely theoretical: decisions made calmly, in writing, beat decisions inferred later from fragments of old conversations.
Certain moments make it urgent rather than merely wise: before a scheduled surgery under general anesthesia, after a serious diagnosis, before long travel, at the start of a pregnancy (see the state note below), and whenever the person who knows your wishes best is no longer in your life. If you signed one years ago, reread it: medicine, your health, and your views may all have moved.
The decisions in this declaration, explained
Life-sustaining treatment
This covers interventions that keep the body functioning when a qualifying condition has been certified: mechanical ventilation, dialysis, antibiotics for life-threatening infection, and similar measures. Your choices are typically to receive them, to decline them, or to try them for a limited period and stop if there is no improvement. The trial option deserves more attention than it gets: it lets your family and physicians attempt recovery without committing you to indefinite support.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
CPR in a hospital, applied to a patient already certified terminally ill or permanently unconscious, rarely restores the life the patient had. Your declaration states whether you want resuscitation attempted in that narrow situation. Remember that this is not an emergency DNR: outside the hospital, responders follow physician-signed portable orders, not this document.
Comfort care and pain relief
Declining life-sustaining treatment never means declining care. Every state's framework assumes comfort care continues: pain management, symptom relief, hygiene, and human presence. Most declarations state expressly that maximum comfort care is wanted even when curative treatment is refused, so no provider reads the document as a request for neglect.
Organ and tissue donation
Your declaration can record whether you wish to donate organs or tissue. Stating it here, alongside your registry enrollment and driver's license designation, removes a decision from your family and can briefly extend organ support after death to make donation possible, without contradicting your treatment refusals.
Living will, DNR, POLST, advance directive: which is which
Four documents share this territory and people routinely confuse them. The living will is your own written declaration of treatment wishes, effective only after physicians certify a qualifying condition. The medical power of attorney names a person to decide for you, covering everything the declaration does not. An advance directive is the umbrella term, and in many states a single statutory form that combines both. A DNR or POLST is different in kind: it is a medical order signed by a clinician, usually for patients with serious illness, and it is what emergency responders follow in the field. The practical takeaway: complete a living will and a medical power of attorney as a pair while healthy, and ask your physician about a portable order if and when a serious diagnosis makes out-of-hospital wishes concrete.
Common living will mistakes
- Signing with the wrong witnesses: many states exclude relatives, heirs, and treating providers, and a defective witnessing can void the document
- Keeping the only copy in a safe deposit box or a drawer no one opens in a crisis
- Never telling your physician, so the hospital record is silent when it matters
- Using vague language ('no heroic measures') instead of answering the specific treatment questions
- Assuming the living will names a decision maker: it does not, pair it with a medical power of attorney
- Forgetting the feeding tube question, the single most litigated gap in these documents
- Signing contradictory documents over the years without destroying the old ones
- Never revisiting it after a diagnosis changes what the abstract questions actually mean for you
The conversation that makes the document work
A living will that surprises your family at the bedside starts a conflict instead of ending one. The document works best as the written record of a conversation you have already had: tell the people who would be in that hospital room what you decided and why, in your own words, and tell your physician at your next visit so it enters your chart. Families honor decisions they heard from you directly; they struggle with pages they discover in a crisis. A one-line values statement in your own voice (what a meaningful recovery means to you, what you fear more than death) helps physicians apply your directives to situations no form anticipates.
State law shapes the edges of every living will: witness eligibility rules differ, several states maintain optional registries that make the document retrievable by hospitals, and a number of states include pregnancy provisions that limit or suspend a living will's effect during pregnancy, a clause worth reading closely if it could apply to you. If you divide the year between states, complete your primary state's form and consider the second state's as well: providers honor out-of-state directives in principle, but the local form is honored without hesitation.
Finally, treat the living will as a document with a maintenance schedule. Reread it after any serious diagnosis, after a hospitalization, when your named health care agent's circumstances change, and every few years regardless: medicine advances, and so do your views. If you update it, sign a fresh document with new witnesses, destroy the old originals, and hand the new version to everyone who had the old one, because the most dangerous living will is an outdated one that still circulates.
One more scenario is worth understanding in advance: a provider who cannot comply. Physicians and hospitals sometimes decline to follow a directive for reasons of conscience or institutional policy, and in most states they must then say so promptly and help arrange a transfer to a provider who will honor it. Families can also push back at the bedside, and while the signed document controls legally, providers in practice look for consensus. Both frictions have the same answer: an agent named under a medical power of attorney who knows your wishes, holds the paperwork, and has the standing to insist on it. The living will states the decision; a prepared advocate is what enforces it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a living will and a last will?
A living will governs your medical care while you are alive but unable to decide; a last will and testament distributes your property after death. The names are similar, the documents are unrelated, and most adults need both.
Does a living will need witnesses or a notary?
Almost every state requires two adult witnesses, generally excluding your health care providers and anyone who inherits from you. Some states accept a notary instead of witnesses, and a few expect both. Check your state's rule before signing.
Can I change my mind after signing a living will?
Yes, at any time and in any manner: destroying the document, signing a new one, or simply telling your physician. Revocation is effective regardless of your physical condition, and providers must honor it.
Will emergency responders follow my living will?
Usually not in the field: EMS teams follow portable medical orders such as DNR or POLST forms signed by a physician. Your living will guides hospital care once physicians certify your condition. Ask your doctor about a portable order if out-of-hospital wishes matter to you.
Do I still need a living will if I have a medical power of attorney?
The two work together. The living will records your actual wishes; the medical power of attorney names who applies them and handles everything the living will does not cover. Having both gives your agent clear instructions and legal backing.
Can my family override my living will?
Not legally: a valid living will is your decision, and providers are directed to follow it over family objections. In practice, hospitals seek family consensus, which is why telling your family your wishes ahead of time matters as much as signing the form. A named health care agent who knows your wishes is the strongest safeguard.
Is my living will valid in another state?
Most states honor directives validly executed elsewhere, either by statute or in practice. Because forms and terminology differ, people who split time between two states often complete both states' forms with identical wishes.
What happens to my living will if I am pregnant?
A number of states limit or suspend the effect of a living will during pregnancy, in some cases only when the fetus could reach viability. The rules vary widely and several have been challenged. If this could apply to you, read your state's statute and state your wishes about pregnancy explicitly in the document.
What if my hospital or physician objects to my instructions?
Providers with conscience-based objections generally may decline to carry out a directive, but state laws require them to say so promptly and to transfer you to a provider who will comply. Discussing your living will with your physician in advance surfaces any objection while you can still choose your providers.
Does a living will expire?
No. It remains effective until you revoke it, and you can revoke at any time by destroying it, signing a new one, or telling your physician. Reviewing it every few years, and after every major diagnosis, keeps it aligned with your current wishes.