Attorney Approved Version!
This document informs everyone of your preferred medical treatments. It allows you to plan your future health care in case you suffer from a condition that prevents you from communicating. You should complete a health care directive to ensure that you receive the specific care that you want; particularly because physicians and your family may not know what treatment you want.
Questions and Answers about Health Care Directives
Laws
Living Will (Text Version)
It is important to consider your goals and values, such as independence and the sanctity of life, when you create a health care directive. Many people would not want to remain alive in a state of permanent unconsciousness. You should discuss these issues with your loved ones and your agent if you name one, and you can write about them in the actual directive as further guidance to healthcare personnel. In Minnesota, you can indicate the following with an advance health care directive:
Which types of treatment you want, including life-supporting treatments like artificial nutrition and hydration if you have a terminal, irreversible condition
Which facilities you want to care for you
Which types of mental health treatment you would not like to receive
Whether you want to donate organs
Signing Requirements (§ 145C.03) – Two (2) witnesses or a notary public. If you choose to have the power of attorney witnessed, at least one (1) of the witnesses may not be a health care provider or an employee of a provider directly attending to you.
Laws – Chapter 145C (Health Care Directives)
