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Living will guidance — treatment-continuation preferences
This page no longer sells a form. The document once offered here was a “presumption for life” directive — instructions to continue medical treatment except in narrow circumstances. Instructions like these belong in your state’s own advance directive or living will. Choose your state below to get the form built on your state’s law.
Guidance
For years this page sold a national “presumption for life” directive — a form directing that treatment be continued except in narrow circumstances. We retired it for a simple reason: health care directives are governed state by state, and most state forms are drafted around declining treatment — so a wish to receive treatment must be written into the state’s own form, clearly, to be honored.
How a directive must be signed, witnessed, and worded is set by each state’s statute. A national form cannot track those differences — and a directive that asks for treatment beyond a statute’s defaults needs every protection the state form provides.
The state form’s specific-instructions section is where treatment-continuation directions carry the most weight — state plainly that you want treatment, including artificially administered food and fluids, continued. Indiana residents have a dedicated option — the Life Prolonging Procedures Declaration — and the finder above routes Indiana selections to it directly.
Your download remains available from your original order link. Be aware that the alternate form carried a five-year expiration running from the date written in its opening line — a signed copy may have lapsed by its own terms. Whatever you signed, restating your wishes on your state’s current form is the safer course.
Four steps — using your state’s own form.
Health care directive law is state law. The form, the signing rules, and the space for specific instructions are all set by the state where you will receive care.
State advance directives include a section for specific instructions. State clearly there that you want treatment continued — including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ventilation, and artificially administered nutrition and hydration — and any exceptions you intend. If the form’s main text is a refusal of life-prolonging treatment, do not sign language that contradicts what you want; some states offer a separate election for requesting treatment, and your state’s page will say so.
Most states require two adult witnesses; some require or accept notarization, and many bar certain people — your agent, your heirs, your treating providers — from witnessing. The state page lists exactly what your state requires.
A health care agent who understands and supports your instructions is the strongest protection you have. Most state forms let you appoint one — and let you instruct that agent to advocate for the treatment plan you have written down.
Because health care directives are governed state by state, and a single national form cannot track every state’s required wording and signing rules. Most state living will forms are drafted around declining treatment — so a wish to receive treatment needs to be written into the state form clearly, not assumed by a generic national document. We would rather route you to that form than sell one that is not built on the law that will actually govern it.
Use your state’s advance directive or living will, and put your instructions in its specific-instructions section — state clearly that you want treatment continued, including resuscitation, ventilation, and artificially administered food and fluids, plus any exceptions you intend. Sign with your state’s exact witness or notary rules, and give copies to your agent, family, and physician. Two honest limits: a directive cannot guarantee a particular treatment — physicians must still exercise medical judgment, and in narrow circumstances the law permits providers to decline treatment they consider medically ineffective. That is why pairing your directive with a health care agent who can advocate for your instructions matters so much.
Yes — Indiana publishes the Life Prolonging Procedures Declaration, a dedicated statutory form for treatment-continuation instructions. The finder above routes Indiana selections to it. Everywhere else, the state form’s specific-instructions section is where your directions carry the most weight.
Your download remains available from the delivery link in your original order. If you cannot find it, contact us at ilrg.com/contact with your purchase email and order number and we will resend the link. Please note: the alternate form expired by its own terms five years from the date written in its opening line, so check the date on any signed copy — and restate your wishes on your state’s current form.
Yes. A written directive states your wishes; an agent enforces them when questions arise that the document does not answer. Most state forms let you appoint a health care agent — choose someone who understands and supports your instructions, and tell them where the signed original is kept.
Usually not. State forms are designed to be completed without a lawyer as long as you follow the signing rules exactly. If your instructions depart from your state’s defaults, a review with an elder-law attorney can confirm the document says what you intend. ILRG provides self-help legal forms and information, not legal advice.
No. A POLST or MOLST is a medical order signed by a clinician for someone who is already seriously ill; it directs emergency personnel and travels with the patient. A directive stating your treatment preferences is written in advance. This page concerns advance directives and living wills only.