Louisiana Living Will Requirements
In Louisiana, what people commonly call a living will is legally a declaration, created under its own dedicated statute, the Declarations Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures law (Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151 through 1151.9), rather than folded into a broader advance-directive form.
Introduction
In Louisiana, what people commonly call a living will is legally a declaration, created under its own dedicated statute, the Declarations Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures law (Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151 through 1151.9), rather than folded into a broader advance-directive form. A declaration is your written or spoken statement of the medical treatment you want, or do not want, if you later become seriously ill or injured and cannot speak for yourself. Louisiana keeps this declaration entirely separate from a health care power of attorney, with no single combined instrument covering both. This guide covers the declaration itself: what it says, how it takes effect, and how to sign it validly under Louisiana law. If you also want to name someone to make broader medical decisions for you, that is a different Louisiana legal instrument called a mandate, covered on the Louisiana Healthcare Power of Attorney page.
Key Things to Know
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Louisiana's statute never uses the phrase "living will"; it calls this document a declaration, under the state's own Declarations Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures law. A declaration is your written or spoken statement of which life-sustaining procedures you want withheld or withdrawn if you cannot speak for yourself; it does not name who decides for you.
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A living will is not a last will and testament. A living will addresses medical treatment while you are alive but unable to communicate; a last will and testament governs who inherits your property after you die. Most people preparing one eventually want the other too.
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Louisiana keeps the living will and the health care power of attorney as two separate legal instruments under two separate bodies of law, unlike states that combine them. Naming a health care decision-maker in Louisiana means executing a mandate with express health care authority, not adding to this declaration.
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Your declaration only takes legal effect once two physicians, one of them your attending physician, certify in writing that you have a terminal and irreversible condition. It is not a general instruction that applies to every hospitalization.
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Louisiana's declaration form asks you to choose between withholding all life-sustaining procedures, including nutrition and hydration, or withholding everything except nutrition and hydration. Either way, comfort care and pain relief continue.
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You sign in front of two witnesses. Louisiana does not require, or even offer, notarization for this declaration. Both witnesses must be unrelated to you and unable to inherit from your estate.
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You can revoke your declaration at any time, regardless of your mental state or competency, by destroying it, by signed writing, or by telling your attending physician.
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Louisiana law does not say your declaration has no effect if you are pregnant. It has a narrower rule: if an obstetrician finds the unborn child is far enough along and your life can reasonably be maintained for a live birth, ambiguity in your declaration is read in favor of preserving life once that finding is communicated to the family members and persons designated by law.
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Registering your declaration with the Louisiana Secretary of State is optional. It gets you a do-not-resuscitate identification bracelet, but skipping it does not affect your declaration's validity.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Living Will in Louisiana, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Living Will guide walks through them.
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Louisiana Requirements for Living Will
A clear statement that the document is a declaration under Louisiana's Declarations Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures law, expressing your wishes about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures. Louisiana keeps this declaration completely separate from a health care power of attorney; there is no combined instrument.
Definition of 'terminal and irreversible condition' as a continual profound comatose state with no reasonable chance of recovery, or a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness which, within reasonable medical judgment, would produce death and for which life-sustaining procedures would serve only to postpone the moment of death.
Definition of 'life-sustaining procedure' as any medical procedure or intervention which would serve only to prolong the dying process for a person with a terminal and irreversible condition, expressly including the invasive administration of nutrition and hydration and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Comfort care measures are expressly excluded from this definition.
Specific instructions regarding the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures once the declarant is certified as having a terminal and irreversible condition.
Louisiana's illustrative declaration form builds artificial nutrition and hydration directly into the primary choice rather than folding it silently into a general instruction: the declarant initials either withholding all life-sustaining procedures including nutrition and hydration, or withholding everything except nutrition and hydration.
The declaration form directs that the declarant be permitted to die naturally with only the administration of medication or medical procedures deemed necessary to provide comfort care, regardless of which life-sustaining-procedure choice is initialed.
A written declaration must be signed by the declarant in the presence of two witnesses who are not related to the declarant by blood or marriage and who would not be entitled to any portion of the declarant's estate.
Two physicians, one of whom must be the attending physician, must diagnose and certify in writing that the declarant has a terminal and irreversible condition before the declarant is a 'qualified patient' and the declaration becomes operative. The attending physician is responsible for ensuring this certification occurs.
A declaration may be revoked at any time by the declarant, without regard to mental state or competency, by physical destruction, by signed written revocation, or by oral or nonverbal communication to the attending physician. No witness is required for an oral or nonverbal revocation. If the declaration was registered, revocation must also be filed with the Louisiana Secretary of State.
Health care providers, physicians, and others acting under a physician's direction who comply in good faith with a properly executed declaration are not subject to criminal prosecution or civil liability for withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures.
Nothing in the declaration law condones, authorizes, or approves assistance to suicide, mercy killing, or euthanasia. Withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures under a valid declaration is not a suicide and does not affect life insurance coverage.
Federal HIPAA regulations govern how your protected health information may be disclosed to the family members or persons your declaration identifies, or to anyone you separately authorize under a Louisiana health care mandate. This authorization does not expand or change the treatment-wishes instructions in your declaration itself.
Federal law requires Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities to inform patients in writing of their right under Louisiana law to make a declaration stating their own treatment wishes.
Louisiana's Anatomical Gift Act, codified in Title 17, lets you express wishes about organ and tissue donation, consistent with the federal National Organ Transplant Act.
A declaration properly executed under another state's law is deemed validly executed for purposes of Louisiana's declaration law, so a declaration signed elsewhere remains effective if you are later treated in Louisiana.
Louisiana has a separate, voluntary Mental Health Advance Directive law (Revised Statutes 28:221 through 237) letting a person execute a declaration or appoint a representative for behavioral health treatment decisions. This is a separate statute with its own execution rules, distinct from the declaration for life-sustaining procedures.
The declaration and its handling by health care facilities must comply with Medicare and Medicaid conditions of participation regarding advance directives.
If the declarant is pregnant, an obstetrician who examines her determines the unborn child's probable postfertilization age is twenty weeks or more, and the pregnant declarant's life can reasonably be maintained in a way that permits the child's continuing development and live birth, Louisiana resolves any ambiguity in the declaration in favor of preserving life, once that determination is communicated to the family members and persons designated in Revised Statutes 40:1151.4. This is not a blanket suspension of the declaration during pregnancy; it is a narrower, conditional interpretive rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
In Louisiana, a living will is legally called a declaration, made under the Declarations Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures law (Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151 through 1151.9). It lets you state, in writing or orally, whether you want life-sustaining procedures withheld or withdrawn if two physicians certify you have a terminal and irreversible condition. It is its own separate legal document, not part of any other instrument.
These are two entirely separate Louisiana legal instruments, not two halves of one document. Your living will (a declaration under Revised Statutes 40:1151) speaks directly to your physician about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures once you are certified as terminally and irreversibly ill. A Louisiana health care power of attorney is a civil-law mandate that must expressly grant health care decision-making authority to an agent, who can then consent to medical treatment for you any time you lack capacity, not only in a terminal diagnosis. See Louisiana Healthcare Power of Attorney for that separate document.
They control completely different things at completely different times. A Louisiana living will (declaration) states your medical treatment wishes while you are alive but unable to communicate. A last will and testament says who inherits your property after you die, and only takes legal effect at death. Having one does not replace the other. Most people who execute a Louisiana declaration for end-of-life care also want a separate Louisiana Last Will and Testament for their estate.
Not automatically, and not entirely. Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151.9 does not void your declaration during pregnancy. Instead, it sets a narrower rule: if you are pregnant, an obstetrician determines the unborn child's probable postfertilization age is twenty weeks or more, and your life can reasonably be maintained to permit the child's continuing development and live birth, any ambiguity in how your declaration should be read is resolved in favor of preserving life, once that finding is communicated to the family members and other persons designated by law.
Louisiana's declaration form builds that choice directly into your primary election rather than hiding it inside a general instruction. You initial one of two options: withholding all life-sustaining procedures including nutrition and hydration, or withholding everything except nutrition and hydration, so nutrition and hydration is always named and decided explicitly, whichever option you pick.
No. Louisiana's declaration statute requires your signature in the presence of two qualifying witnesses. There is no notary option and no notarization requirement anywhere in the statute, which is different from states that let you choose between witnesses and a notary.
Yes. Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151.3 lets you revoke your declaration at any time, without regard to your mental state or competency, by destroying it, by signed written notice, or by telling your attending physician orally or through nonverbal communication. If you had registered it with the Secretary of State, file the revocation there too.
No. The Louisiana Secretary of State's declaration registry is voluntary. Registering gets you a do-not-resuscitate identification bracelet, but nothing in the law requires a physician or health care facility to search the registry, and skipping registration does not affect your declaration's validity.
Yes. Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1151.9 treats a declaration properly executed under another state's law as validly executed for purposes of Louisiana's own law, so a declaration you signed elsewhere remains valid if you move to or are treated in Louisiana.