North Carolina Living Will Form

The North Carolina Living Will is a form that is used for allowing a resident of the State of North Carolina to designate the medical treatments they receive, becoming effective by their incapacitation.

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ADVANCE DIRECTIVE FOR A NATURAL DEATH ("LIVING WILL") 
 
NOTE:  YOU SHOULD USE THIS DOCUMENT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS 
INSTRUCTIONS TO WITHHOLD OR WITHDRAW LIFE-PROLONGING MEASURES IN CERTAIN 
SITUATIONS.  THERE IS NO LEGAL REQUIREMENT THAT ANYONE EXECUTE A LIVING WILL.  
 
 
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:  You can use this Advance Directive ("Living Will") form to give instructions 
for the future if you want your health care providers to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging measures in 
certain situations.  You should talk to your doctor about what these terms mean.  The Living Will states 
what choices you would have made for yourself if you were able to communicate.  Talk to your family 
members, friends, and others you trust about your choices.  Also, it is a good idea to talk with 
professionals such as your doctors, clergypersons, and lawyers before you complete and sign this Living 
Will.    
 
You do not have to use this form to give those instructions, but if you create your own Advance Directive 
you need to be very careful to ensure that it is consistent with North Carolina law.   
 
This Living Will form is intended to be valid in any jurisdiction in which it is presented, but places outside 
North Carolina may impose requirements that this form does not meet. 
 
If you want to use this form, you must complete it, sign it, and have your signature witnessed by two 
qualified witnesses and proved by a notary public.  Follow the instructions about which choices you can 
initial very carefully.  Do not sign this form until two witnesses and a notary public are present to watch 
you sign it.  You then should consider giving a copy to your primary physician and/or a trusted relative, 
and should consider filing it with the Advanced Health Care Directive Registry maintained by the North 
Carolina Secretary of State:  http://www.nclifelinks.org/ahcdr/  	
 	
 
My Desire for a Natural Death 
 
I, ________________________, being of sound mind, desire that, as specified below, my life not be 
prolonged by life-prolonging measures: 
 
1.   When My Directives Apply 
 
My directions about prolonging my life shall apply IF my attending physician determines that I lack 
capacity to make or communicate health care decisions and:    
 
    NOTE:  YOU MAY INITIAL ANY OR ALL OF THESE CHOICES. 
 
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
I have an incurable or irreversible condition that will result in my death 
within a relatively short period of time. 	
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
I become unconscious and my health care providers determine that, to a 
high degree of medical certainty, I will never regain my consciousness. 	
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
I suffer from advanced dementia or any other condition which results in 
the substantial loss of my cognitive ability and my health care providers 
determine that, to a high degree of medical certainty, this loss is not 
reversible.

2.     These are My Directives about Prolonging My Life:  
 
  In those situations I have initialed in Section 1, I direct that my health care providers: 
 
NOTE:  INITIAL ONLY IN ONE PLACE. 
 
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
may withhold or withdraw life-prolonging measures. 	
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
shall withhold or withdraw life-prolonging measures. 
 	
 
3.    Exceptions –– "Artificial Nutrition or Hydration" 
 
NOTE:  INITIAL ONLY IF YOU WANT TO MAKE EXCEPTIONS TO YOUR INSTRUCTIONS IN 
PARAGRAPH 2. 
 
  EVEN THOUGH I do not want my life prolonged in those situations I have initialed in Section 1:   
   
  
 
 
  	
 
(Initial) 
  
I DO want to receive BOTH artificial hydration AND artificial nutrition (for 
example, through tubes) in those situations. 
 	
NOTE:  DO NOT INITIAL THIS BLOCK IF ONE OF THE BLOCKS BELOW 
IS INITIALED. 	
 
 
  	
 
(Initial) 
  
I DO want to receive ONLY artificial hydration (for example, through tubes) in 
those situations. 
 	
NOTE:  DO NOT INITIAL THE BLOCK ABOVE OR BELOW IF THIS 
BLOCK IS INITIALED. 	
 
 
  	
 
(Initial) 
  
I DO want to receive ONLY artificial nutrition (for example, through tubes) in 
those situations. 
 	
NOTE:  DO NOT INITIAL EITHER OF THE TWO BLOCKS ABOVE IF THIS 
BLOCK IS INITIALED. 	
 
 
4.    I Wish to be Made as Comfortable as Possible 
 
I direct that my health care providers take reasonable steps to keep me as clean, comfortable, 
and free of pain as possible so that my dignity is maintained, even though this care may hasten 
my death. 
 
5.    I Understand my Advance Directive  
 
I am aware and understand that this document directs certain life-prolonging measures to be 
withheld or discontinued in accordance with my advance instructions.

6.    If I have an Available Health Care Agent 
 
    If I have appointed a health care agent by executing a health care power of attorney or similar 
instrument, and that health care agent is acting and available and gives instructions that differ 
from this Advance Directive, then I direct that: 
 
  	
 
(Initial) 
  
Follow Advance Directive	:  This Advance Directive will override 
instructions my health care agent gives about prolonging my life.   
 	
 
  	
 
(Initial)  
Follow Health Care Agent	:  My health care agent has authority to 
override  this Advance Directive.  
  	
 
NOTE: DO NOT INITIAL BOTH BLOCKS.   IF YOU DO NOT INITIAL EITHER BOX, THEN 
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS WILL FOLLOW THIS ADVANCE DIRECTIVE AND 
IGNORE THE INSTRUCTIONS OF YOUR HEALTH CARE AGENT ABOUT PROLONGING 
YOUR LIFE. 
 
 
7.    My Health Care Providers May Rely on this Directive 
  My health care providers shall not be liable to me or to my family, my estate, my heirs, or my 
personal representative for following the instructions I give in this instrument.  Following my 
directions shall not be considered suicide, or the cause of my death, or malpractice or 
unprofessional conduct.  If I have revoked this instrument but my health care providers do not 
know that I have done so, and they follow the instructions in this instrument in good faith, they 
shall be entitled to the same protections to which they would have been entitled if the instrument 
had not been revoked.  
8.    I  Want this Directive to be Effective Anywhere 
  I intend that this Advance Directive be followed by any health care provider in any place.   
9.    I have the Right to Revoke this Direction 
 
I understand that at any time I may revoke this Advance Directive in a writing I sign or by 
communicating in any clear and consistent manner my intent to revoke it to my attending 
physician.  I understand that if I revoke this instrument I should try to destroy all copies of it.   
 
This the ____ day of _____________, _______. 
 
Signature of 
Declarant____________________________________________ 
 
Type/print name ______________________________________ 
 
 
I hereby state that the declarant, ________________________, being of sound mind, signed (or directed 
another to sign on declarant's behalf) the foregoing Advance Directive for a Natural Death in my 
presence, and that I am not related to the declarant by blood or marriage, and I would not be entitled to 
any portion of the estate of the declarant under any existing will or codicil of the declarant or as an heir

under the Intestate Succession Act, if the declarant died on this date without a will.  I also state that I am 
not the declarant's attending physician, nor a licensed health care provider who is (1) an employee of the 
declarant's attending physician, (2) nor an employee of the health facility in which the declarant is a 
patient, or (3) an employee of a nursing home or any adult care home where the declarant resides.  I 
further state that I do not have any claim against the declarant or the estate of the declarant. 
Date: ___________________________  Witness: ___________________________ 
Date: ___________________________  Witness: ___________________________ 
 
 
 
 
______________ COUNTY, ____________________ STATE 
 
Sworn to (or affirmed) and subscribed before me this day by ___________________________________ 
       (type/print name of declarant) 
 
       ____________________________________ 
       (type/print name of witness)   
  
       ____________________________________ 
       (type/print name of witness)   
  
  
Date  _____________________   ______________________________________ 
  Signature of Notary Public 
 (Official Seal) 
  ___________________________, Notary Public 
  Printed or typed name 
 
  My commission expires:  __________________