Minnesota Living Will Requirements
Minnesota's own 'Living Will Act,' once a stand-alone law in Chapter 145B, has been dormant for any document signed on or after August 1, 1998, meaning Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C now governs every living will signed in the state today.
Introduction
Minnesota's own 'Living Will Act,' once a stand-alone law in Chapter 145B, has been dormant for any document signed on or after August 1, 1998, meaning Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C now governs every living will signed in the state today. A living will, in plain terms, is your written statement of the medical treatment you want, or do not want, if you later become seriously ill or injured and cannot speak for yourself. Under Chapter 145C, that treatment-wishes statement is folded together with the power to name a health care agent into one combined document, the Health Care Directive. This guide walks through the treatment-wishes side of that directive: how to answer its four open-ended scenario prompts, the notary-or-witness signing options Section 145C.03 allows, and what else Minnesota law expects before providers will honor it. To name someone who can decide on your behalf, the agent-designation side of the same directive is covered separately on the Minnesota Healthcare Power of Attorney page.
Key Things to Know
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A living will in Minnesota isn't a checklist you initial; it is your own words about what care you'd want in each of four situations Minnesota's suggested form lays out (a reasonable chance of recovery, dying, permanent unconsciousness, or complete dependence on others for care), written as the treatment-wishes half of Minnesota's combined Health Care Directive. 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 governs medical care 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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Minnesota does not have a stand-alone living-will form for documents signed today. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C folds the treatment-wishes declaration and the health care power of attorney into one combined Health Care Directive. Minnesota's earlier Living Will Act, Chapter 145B, still governs only documents signed before August 1, 1998.
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You can sign your directive before a notary public, or before witnesses. Both routes are equally valid; Minnesota's own suggested form uses two witnesses.
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Unlike some states, Minnesota does not require an extra ombudsman or patient-advocate witness if you are a skilled nursing facility or long-term care resident when you sign.
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Artificial nutrition and hydration is covered by whatever you write about your general treatment wishes. Minnesota's suggested form does not carve out a separate, stand-alone choice for it.
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Minnesota law does not void your directive if you are pregnant. Instead it presumes, by default, that you would want life-sustaining care continued if there is a real possibility your pregnancy could reach live birth, unless you have written your own pregnancy instructions saying otherwise.
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Your written treatment wishes don't revoke on a separate track from the rest of your directive: destroying the document, signing a dated written statement, telling two witnesses out loud, or signing a later, inconsistent directive revokes your treatment instructions the same way it revokes everything else in the directive, at any time.
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Minnesota does not run a state health care directive registry. Keep your signed original with your personal papers and give copies to your doctor, agent, and close family instead.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Living Will in Minnesota, 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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Minnesota Requirements for Living Will
Minnesota does not have a separate living-will act; the operative chapter is titled 'Health Care Directives.' To be legally sufficient, a health care directive must be in writing, be dated, state the principal's name, be signed by the principal or someone authorized to sign for the principal, be verified by a notary public or by witnesses, and include a health care instruction, a health care power of attorney, or both.
If you use witnesses instead of a notary, at least one of your witnesses, not necessarily both, must not be a health care provider giving you direct care or that provider's employee. A notary, unlike a witness, is allowed to be such an employee. Minnesota's own suggested form fixes the witness route at exactly two people.
A health care agent must be an individual age 18 or older (Section 145C.01, subdivision 2). A health care provider attending the principal, or an employee of such a provider, is not eligible to act as agent unless related to the principal by blood, marriage, domestic partnership, or adoption, or unless the principal specifies otherwise (Section 145C.03, subdivision 2). Agent designation itself is optional and made in the health care power of attorney portion of the directive.
A health care agent's authority to make a given decision, including about artificial nutrition and hydration, only arises once the principal lacks decision-making capacity for that decision, or another condition the principal specified has been met. Because 'health care' is defined broadly at Section 145C.01, subdivision 4, to include nutrition and hydration given parenterally or through intubation, an agent's general authority already reaches those decisions without a separate grant.
You may revoke all or part of your health care directive, both the treatment-wishes and agent-designation portions together under one standard, by destroying the document, signing a dated written revocation, verbally expressing intent to revoke before two witnesses, or signing a later, inconsistent directive. Unless your directive says otherwise, appointing a spouse or domestic partner as agent is automatically revoked when dissolution, annulment, or termination proceedings begin. A court may void all or part of a directive on clear and convincing evidence of coercion, fraudulent inducement, or a failure to meet Section 145C.03 or 145C.04's requirements.
Minnesota does not void or suspend a directive during pregnancy. Instead, the law presumes, as a default, that an incapacitated pregnant patient would want life-sustaining care provided if there is a real possibility the fetus could survive to live birth, even care she otherwise declined. A principal may override this default in advance by writing her own pregnancy-specific instructions into the directive.
Minnesota Statutes Section 145C.16 provides a complete suggested Health Care Directive form. Using it is optional, not required; any directive that independently meets Section 145C.03's execution requirements is valid without it.
Federal HIPAA regulations govern how your health care agent can be authorized to access your protected health information once the agent-designation portion of your directive is in effect.
Federal law requires Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities to inform patients in writing of their right under Minnesota law to make a health care directive, including stating their own treatment wishes.
Minnesota's suggested form lets you describe your beliefs and values, then write your own wishes across four situations: a reasonable chance of recovery, dying, permanent unconsciousness, or complete dependence on others for care. Including these instructions is optional, not mandatory, but if you do not name an agent, you must complete some or all of them for the directive to be valid.
A health care directive may include a declaration regarding intrusive mental health treatment, or a statement authorizing the health care agent to consent to such treatment on the principal's behalf, under Minnesota Statutes Sections 253B.03 and 253B.04.
A health care directive may include a document of gift for organ or tissue donation under Chapter 525A, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Section 525A.04 specifically addresses gifts made during the donor's lifetime, including gifts made by a health care agent unless the directive prohibits it; the more common scenario a living will addresses, donation wishes effective at death, is covered more generally by the chapter and by the suggested form's own organ-donation section.
A health care directive may designate one or more alternate health care agents to act if the primary agent named is not reasonably available to serve.
A health care directive or similar document validly executed in another state or jurisdiction is legally sufficient in Minnesota if it complies with that jurisdiction's law, or if it independently complies with Minnesota's own Section 145C.03 execution requirements.
Minnesota's suggested form lets you describe your goals, fears, and spiritual or religious beliefs to guide whoever makes decisions for you.
Naming a health care agent is also treated as nominating that person as guardian under Minnesota's guardianship statutes (Sections 524.5-202, 524.5-211, 524.5-302, and 524.5-303) unless the directive limits or excludes that nomination.
Federal regulations require Medicare- and Medicaid-participating facilities to maintain written policies on advance directives and to honor valid ones, consistent with Minnesota law.
A health care directive may optionally include instructions specifically about artificially administered nutrition or hydration, but Minnesota does not require this. Its suggested form has no dedicated ANH initial line; ANH is folded into the same general treatment-wishes instructions as every other form of care, and the broad definition of 'health care' at Section 145C.01, subdivision 4, includes it.
Minnesota's suggested form states that your doctors, advanced practice registered nurses, or physician assistants will try to keep you comfortable and reduce your pain in all circumstances, and lets you state your wishes about pain relief even where it might affect your alertness or shorten your life.
Federal HITECH Act provisions give patients a right to obtain their protected health information electronically, and Minnesota's health information exchange law (Section 62J.498) sets state-level oversight of health data exchange generally. Your agent's authority to access your electronic health records comes from the agent-designation portion of your directive under Section 145C.08.
If your agent or your own instructions direct health care, nutrition, or hydration that has a significant possibility of sustaining your life, a health care provider unwilling to provide it must still take reasonable steps, including transfer by emergency means if necessary, to ensure you receive it until you can be transferred to a provider who will comply, unless your directive itself indicates a contrary intention.
Frequently Asked Questions
In Minnesota, a living will is the health-care-instruction half of the Health Care Directive, the single instrument Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C uses for end-of-life medical decisions. It lets you write down, in your own words, what care you want or don't want if you become unable to decide or speak for yourself, using Minnesota's suggested form's four scenarios: a reasonable chance of recovery, dying, permanent unconsciousness, or complete dependence on others. There is no separate Minnesota statute called a living will for documents signed today. Minnesota's earlier Living Will Act, Chapter 145B, only still governs documents executed before August 1, 1998.
One Minnesota document does both jobs, but the two halves answer different questions. This living-will half states YOUR wishes directly: what treatment you want or don't want in each of four situations, in your own words. The health care power of attorney half instead names WHO decides for you on anything your written wishes don't cover. You can sign either half alone, or both together. For the agent-designation half specifically, see Minnesota Healthcare Power of Attorney.
These control completely different things at completely different times. A living will, part of your Minnesota Health Care Directive, 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 completing a Health Care Directive for end-of-life planning also want a separate Minnesota Last Will and Testament for their estate.
No. Minnesota's suggested statutory form, Minnesota Statutes Section 145C.16, does not give artificial nutrition and hydration its own initialed line, unlike a handful of other states. Whatever you write across the form's four treatment scenarios covers all forms of health care, including tube feeding and IV fluids, since 'health care' is defined broadly at Section 145C.01, subdivision 4, to include nutrition or hydration given parenterally or through intubation. You can call it out by name if you want to be specific, but Minnesota law does not require it.
It stays in effect, but Minnesota law adds a default rule for this situation. Under Section 145C.10, paragraph (g), if you lack decision-making capacity while pregnant and there is a real possibility, in reasonable medical judgment, that your pregnancy could reach live birth, providers presume you would want life-sustaining care continued, even care you otherwise declined. You can override this presumption in advance by writing your own pregnancy-specific wishes into your directive under Section 145C.05, subdivision 2, paragraph (a), clause (10).
No. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C does not include an ombudsman or patient-advocate witness requirement tied to skilled nursing facility or long-term care residency the way some other states do. The same execution rules apply everywhere in Minnesota: sign in writing, dated, and verified by a notary public or by witnesses under Section 145C.03.
No. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 145C does not create a state-run health care directive registry. Instead, the law's own suggested form tells you to keep your signed original with your personal papers and give copies to your doctor, your agent, and close family so they have it when needed.
Minnesota Statutes Section 145C.09 gives you four ways to revoke your written treatment wishes: destroy the document, sign and date a written statement revoking it, tell two witnesses out loud that you revoke it, or sign a later directive that conflicts with the earlier one. These same four methods revoke your whole directive at once. Minnesota doesn't require you to revoke your treatment wishes through a separate, stricter, or looser process than the rest of the document.
Yes. Minnesota Statutes Section 145C.04 treats a health care directive executed in another state or jurisdiction as legally sufficient here if it complies with that jurisdiction's law, or if it independently complies with Minnesota's own Section 145C.03 requirements.