Living Will & Advance Directives

Living Wills

A Living Will is a document in which you can instruct your physician to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures if you are terminally ill or in a coma or persistent vegetative state with no reasonable likelihood of recovering. A Living Will must specifically state your desire to forego life-sustaining care under these circumstances. A Living Will must be signed, dated, and witnessed. A lawyer is not needed to draw up a Living Will, although you may decide consultation with a lawyer is desirable. A Living Will document goes into effect only when you can no longer make decisions. It remains in effect only as long as you cannot tell your doctor your wishes. You may revoke your Living Will at any time. Georgia’s Living Will law allows you to state your wishes about donating your organs and tissues.

Advance Directives

Advance directives are documents written in advance of serious illness that state your choices about medical treatment or name someone to make choices about medical treatment if you become unable to make decisions. Through advance directives such as living wills and durable powers of attorney for health care, you can make legally valid decisions about future medical treatment.

Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care

A durable power of attorney is another kind of advance directive: a signed, dated, and witnessed legal document in which you can name another person, an agent, to make medical decisions for you, if you become unable to make them. In a health care power of attorney, you can describe treatment you want and do not want. Also, this form of advance directive can relate to any medical condition, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, not just a terminal illness, coma, or persistent vegetative state. Georgia law describes a health care power of attorney form, but other forms are also acceptable. A durable power of attorney for health care can be written without the advice of a lawyer, although you may decide consultation with your attorney would be helpful.

Where can I get forms for advance directives?

You can obtain Living Will and durable power of attorney for healthcare forms by writing the Medical Association of Georgia, the State Bar Association, the Georgia Hospital Association or your local hospital. If you plan to sign the documents while receiving treatment at a hospital, nursing facility, home health agency, or hospice program, you, or your family members, will be responsible for assuring witnesses, other than the hospital, nursing facility, home health agency or hospice program personnel, are present when you sign the documents. There are special requirements for a physician’s signature if the durable power of attorney for healthcare is executed in an institution.

Georgia Hospital Association
1675 Terrel Mill Road
Marietta, Georgia 30067

Medical Association of Georgia
938 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30309

State Bar of Georgia
50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 800
Atlanta, GA 30303-2934