Mississippi Living Will Requirements

Mississippi does not have a legally separate living-will statute. Mississippi Code Sections 41-41-201 through 41-41-229, 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 in one document.

You must be an adult, 18 years or older, or an emancipated minor to give an individual instruction or execute a power of attorney for health care. Mississippi Code Section 41-41-223 separately presumes every individual has capacity to make a health-care decision or give an advance health-care directive unless shown otherwise, and each witness's own perjury declaration confirms you appeared to be of sound mind at signing.

If you use witnesses instead of a notary, Mississippi requires two adult witnesses who are not your designated agent, a health care provider, or an employee of a health care provider or facility. At least one witness must not be related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption and must not be entitled to any part of your estate. Each witness signs a declaration under penalty of perjury. Mississippi law does not disqualify a witness for being financially responsible for your medical care; that is a different state's rule, not Mississippi's.

Acknowledging your directive before a notary public is an alternative to, not a fallback for, the two-witness signing method. Mississippi Code Section 41-41-205 makes notarization and two-witness signing two independently sufficient, co-equal ways to execute a valid directive.

Section 41-41-205 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 Mississippi Healthcare Power of Attorney.

Mississippi's optional Section 41-41-209 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 all life-sustaining treatment unless you separately mark the artificial nutrition and hydration override box.

Artificial nutrition and hydration must be provided, withheld, or withdrawn in line with whichever general end-of-life choice you mark on the optional Section 41-41-209 form, unless you separately mark an override box. If you mark that box, artificial nutrition and hydration must be provided regardless of your condition or your general choice. Mississippi does not require a fully separate mandatory initialed election the way some states do; the override is optional.

Mississippi's optional statutory 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 your directive.

Mississippi treats revocation of your treatment-wishes instructions very differently from revocation of your agent's authority. 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 stricter standard. If your directive was filed in chancery court because it was notarized, you must also inform that court after a revocation, though failing to do so does not undo the revocation.

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 combined directive is in effect. This authorization supports the agent-decision-maker half of your directive; it does not change or expand your own treatment-wishes instructions.

You may include your organ and tissue donation wishes, which must comply with the Revised Mississippi Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Mississippi's own optional Section 41-41-209 statutory form includes a dedicated Part 4 for the Certificate of Authorization for Organ Donation.

Mississippi's Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act does not contain its own explicit provision stating that a directive validly executed in another state is automatically recognized here, unlike some states' statutes. In practice, Mississippi health care providers commonly honor an out-of-state advance directive that was validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed, but this rests on general provider practice rather than a specific Mississippi statutory reciprocity clause.

A health care provider may decline to comply with your instructions for reasons of conscience, or if compliance would require medically ineffective care or care contrary to generally accepted health-care standards. A provider who declines must promptly inform you or your authorized decision-maker, keep providing care until a transfer can happen, and make reasonable efforts to transfer you to a provider willing to comply.

You may include religious preferences you want respected during end-of-life care. This right is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

If you live in a residential long-term health care institution, the owner, operator, or an employee of that facility generally cannot serve as your health care agent (Section 41-41-205) or, absent a designated agent, as your surrogate decision-maker (Section 41-41-211), unless that person is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption. A narrow exception lets a state-operated facility's own staff serve as surrogate only if no other eligible surrogate is reasonably available.

If you execute your Advance Health-Care Directive using the notary-acknowledgment path, Mississippi requires it be filed in the chancery court of the county where you reside and made available on the official State of Mississippi website until it is revoked. After a revocation, you must inform that chancery court, though failing to do so does not affect the revocation's validity, and the directive is then removed from the state website.