Connecticut Living Will Requirements

Connecticut's living will law has no official short title. Chapter 368w, titled Removal of Life Support Systems and Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, Sections 19a-570 through 19a-580i, provides the legal basis for a living will (also called health care instructions), naming and defining it separately from the appointment of a health care representative.

Connecticut defines a living will as a written statement, made in compliance with Section 19a-575a, containing a declarant's wishes concerning any aspect of health care, including withholding or withdrawing life support systems. The definition itself is not limited to terminal-condition or permanently-unconscious scenarios. Those two conditions instead govern when life support may actually be withheld or withdrawn, under Section 19a-571.

Any person eighteen years of age or older may execute a living will. Connecticut's suggested form requires the document be made while the declarant is of sound mind, after careful reflection, and the witnesses' statements affirm that the declarant appeared able to understand the nature and consequences of health care decisions and was under no improper influence at the time of signing.

A Connecticut living will must be signed in front of at least two witnesses, who also sign. Connecticut law does not impose a general list of disqualified witnesses for the living will itself. The one universal restriction applies only if you are also naming a health care representative on the same document: the person you name as your representative cannot witness that appointment.

Notarization is not an alternative to the two-witness signing requirement for a Connecticut living will. The document's optional witness affidavit, a separate sworn statement by your two witnesses used as extra proof in a later dispute, is the only part of the process involving a notary public or Commissioner of the Superior Court, and even that is optional.

Connecticut's suggested living will form lets you address particular treatments individually, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, artificial respiration, and artificial means of providing nutrition and hydration, each with its own Provide or Withhold choice, plus blank lines for additional treatments you name yourself. This list can override your general terminal-condition or permanently-unconscious instruction for any one treatment you specify.

Connecticut once had a separate statute, Section 19a-574, addressing a living will's application during pregnancy, but it was repealed effective May 24, 2018, and is no longer current law. Today, the state's suggested living will form instead gives you a voluntary choice: accept life support if your doctor believes it would let the fetus reach a live birth, apply your document without modification, or write your own instructions. Connecticut does not impose a default rule that changes or suspends your directive during pregnancy. You decide in advance.

You may revoke your Connecticut living will at any time and in any manner, regardless of your mental or physical condition, a notably relaxed standard. Your physician must add the revocation to your medical record. Revoking an appointment of a health care representative is stricter, since Section 19a-575a requires it be done by the declarant in writing.

A Connecticut physician or health care provider unwilling to comply with your living will's wishes, for reasons of personal, moral, or professional objection, must take all reasonable steps, as promptly as practicable, to transfer your care to a provider willing to comply.

A physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or licensed medical facility that withholds or removes a life support system based on a properly considered living will, in accordance with usual and customary standards of medical practice, is not liable in a civil action or subject to criminal prosecution for doing so. A person who carries out a living will without knowledge that it was revoked is similarly protected.

Connecticut's living will and combined advance directive forms include a document of anatomical gift section, letting you authorize donation of any needed organs or parts, or limit the gift to specific organs or specific purposes, under Section 19a-279f.

A health care instruction or health care representative appointment validly executed under another state's law, or under Connecticut's, and not contrary to Connecticut public policy, is deemed validly executed here.

Federal HIPAA regulations govern how a health care representative you name can be authorized to access your protected health information once that portion of your directive is in effect. This authorization supports the representative-appointment side of your planning. It does not change your own living will treatment instructions.

Federal law requires Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities to inform patients in writing of their right under Connecticut law to make an advance directive, including stating their own treatment wishes.

Connecticut requires comfort care and pain alleviation to be provided in all cases, regardless of the life support choices in your living will. This is a guaranteed baseline of care, not an optional instruction you need to request.

Connecticut also lets you appoint a health care representative inside the same chapter that governs your living will. That is a separate function: naming a representative gives someone else decision-making authority, rather than stating your own wishes directly. For representative-appointment guidance, see Connecticut Healthcare Power of Attorney.

Connecticut's suggested living will form addresses artificial nutrition and hydration as its own named line, separate from cardiopulmonary resuscitation, artificial respiration, and your general terminal-condition or permanently-unconscious instruction, so you can accept or decline it individually rather than through one blanket choice.