Maine Living Will Requirements

Maine does not have a legally separate living-will statute. Title 18-C, Sections 5-801 to 5-817 (the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act) create one combined instrument, the Advance Health Care Directive, defined as either an individual instruction (treatment wishes), a power of attorney for health care (agent designation), or both together, though the statute sets different execution rules for each half.

Title 18-C, Section 5-802 defines 'capacity' as the ability to have a basic understanding of the diagnosed condition, to understand the significant benefits, risks, and alternatives to the proposed health care and the consequences of forgoing it, to make and communicate a health care decision, and to understand the consequences of designating an agent or surrogate. You must have this capacity to give an individual instruction, execute a power of attorney for health care, or designate or disqualify a surrogate.

A written power of attorney for health care must be signed by you and two witnesses, with all signatures made in person and not electronically. Maine's statute does not disqualify health care providers, facility employees, relatives, or estate beneficiaries from serving as a witness. Maine imposes no witness qualification list at all; the only person-specific restriction in the statute applies to your named agent, not your witnesses.

Maine's statute does not offer notarization as a legal alternative to the two-witness signing requirement. A directive may be notarized in addition to being witnessed, and Section 5-803-A's remote-signing procedure for isolated patients does not apply when a directive is notarized, but notarizing your Maine directive does not remove the need for two in-person witnesses.

Maine treats revocation of your treatment-wishes instructions differently from revocation of your agent's authority, and both require you to have capacity. You may revoke all or part of your treatment instructions at any time, in any manner that communicates your intent to revoke. Revoking your agent's designation requires a signed writing or personally informing your health care provider, a deliberately stricter standard.

Section 5-803 also lets you name a health care agent inside the same Advance Health Care Directive. That is a separate function from the living-will/treatment-wishes instruction covered on this page: naming an agent gives someone else decision-making authority, rather than stating your own wishes directly. For full agent-designation guidance, see Maine Healthcare Power of Attorney.

Maine's optional Section 5-805 statutory form lets you choose between prolonging life as long as possible, or not prolonging life if (i) you have an incurable and irreversible condition expected to cause death within a relatively short time, (ii) you become permanently unconscious, or (iii) the likely risks and burdens of treatment would outweigh the expected benefits. This choice covers artificial nutrition and hydration by default, and the form gives you a separate box to require artificial nutrition and hydration regardless of your condition if you mark it.

Maine's Uniform Health Care Decisions Act does not separately define 'terminal condition' as its own statutory term. The incurable-and-irreversible, short-time-to-death language comes from the optional Section 5-805 form's Choice Not To Prolong Life paragraph, not from a standalone definitions-section entry, and an individual instruction made outside the form may use different condition language under Section 5-803.

Maine law defines persistent vegetative state as a state occurring after coma in which the patient totally lacks higher cortical and cognitive function but maintains vegetative brain stem processes, with no realistic possibility of recovery, as diagnosed under acceptable medical standards. 'End-stage condition' is not a term Maine's statute uses.

A health care provider or institution must comply with your individual instruction and with a reasonable interpretation of it made by whoever is then authorized to decide for you, unless the provider declines for reasons of conscience or because the instruction is medically ineffective or contrary to generally accepted health care standards. A provider that declines must promptly say so and make reasonable efforts to transfer you to a provider who will comply.

A health care provider or institution acting in good faith and in accordance with generally accepted health care standards is not subject to civil or criminal liability or professional discipline for complying with, or declining to comply with, a health care decision made under this Part. An agent, guardian, or surrogate acting in good faith has the same protection.

An advance health care directive is valid in Maine regardless of when or where it was executed or communicated if it complies with Maine's Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, or if it was valid under the law of the state where it was executed or communicated. A physician may rely on an out-of-state directive on that basis.

Federal HIPAA regulations (45 CFR Section 164.508) govern how your health care agent can be authorized to access your protected health information. Maine law independently reinforces this: Section 5-803(10) gives a named surrogate or agent the power and authority to serve as your personal representative for all purposes of HIPAA, with the same rights you would have to use and disclose your own health information.

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

Maine's optional Section 5-805 statutory form includes a dedicated Part 3 letting you authorize donation of any needed organs, tissues, or parts, or only specific ones, for transplant, therapy, research, or education. Federal law separately prohibits the sale of human organs for valuable consideration.

Maine's optional Section 5-805 form directs that treatment for alleviation of pain or discomfort be provided at all times, even if it hastens death, unless you state otherwise in the space the form provides.

Maine's Advance Health Care Directive is affirmatively valid for directing mental health treatment, construed in accordance with the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act and Title 34-B, Sections 3831 and 3862. An agent or surrogate may not consent to your admission to a mental health institution unless your written directive expressly authorizes that, and this Part does not affect other Maine statutes governing treatment for someone involuntarily committed.

If you are a patient in a hospital or residential health care facility with an infectious disease and isolation precautions prevent the physical presence of people or documents needed to execute your directive, facility staff may help you sign remotely. You direct another individual physically present in the same facility, outside the isolation area, to sign your name, using real-time two-way audiovisual technology so you, the signer, and any witness can see and hear each other. You must be given an unsigned copy to review beforehand, the signed original is filed in your medical record, and if you or your agent later find a substantive difference between the reviewed copy and the signed original, you may revoke the directive by notifying your primary physician orally or in writing. This procedure does not apply if your directive is notarized.