Wisconsin Living Will Requirements
Wisconsin asks you to answer the feeding-tube question on its own: whether you want a feeding tube withheld or withdrawn is a separate initialed choice from your general life-sustaining-treatment decision, and the state's declaration form asks you to make both choices twice, once for a terminal condition and once for a persistent vegetative state, rather than covering everything with a single election the way some states do.
Introduction
Wisconsin asks you to answer the feeding-tube question on its own: whether you want a feeding tube withheld or withdrawn is a separate initialed choice from your general life-sustaining-treatment decision, and the state's declaration form asks you to make both choices twice, once for a terminal condition and once for a persistent vegetative state, rather than covering everything with a single election the way some states do. This document, which Wisconsin's own statute calls a Declaration to Health Care Professionals and most people call a living will, is your written statement of the medical treatment you want or want withheld if you can no longer communicate. Wisconsin keeps this declaration entirely separate from the document that names a decision-maker: Statutes Chapter 154 governs this declaration on its own, while Chapter 155 governs the Wisconsin Healthcare Power of Attorney as its own distinct instrument with its own execution rules, not two halves of one combined form. This guide covers the treatment-wishes declaration itself: how Wisconsin structures its feeding-tube and life-sustaining-treatment choices, how to execute the document validly, including a video-witnessing option most states don't offer, and what happens if you also hold a health care power of attorney whose terms conflict with it.
Key Things to Know
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Wisconsin keeps your living will and your health care power of attorney as two completely separate documents under two separate statutes. Chapter 154 governs this declaration, where you state your own treatment wishes directly; Chapter 155 governs the Healthcare Power of Attorney, where you name someone else to decide. Some states fold both functions into one combined form; Wisconsin does not.
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A living will is not a last will and testament. A living will governs 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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Feeding tubes get their own yes/no line on Wisconsin's declaration, separate from your general life-sustaining-treatment choice, and you answer it once for a terminal condition and again for a persistent vegetative state. Leave a feeding-tube line blank and feeding tubes will be used by default.
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Wisconsin's declaration has no effect while you are pregnant. If your attending health care professional diagnoses you as pregnant, the document is suspended for the rest of the pregnancy regardless of what you initialed.
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Both witnesses to your declaration must be disinterested, not just one. Neither may be related to you, stand to inherit from you, be financially responsible for your health care, or (absent a chaplain or social-worker exception) work for your health care provider or facility.
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You can execute your declaration by live two-way video instead of signing in person, as long as a Wisconsin-licensed attorney supervises the session, everyone confirms they are physically in Wisconsin, and the attorney attaches a signed compliance affidavit to the document.
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There is no statewide registry to sign up for. You may, for a fee, file your declaration with the Register in Probate in the county where you live, but this is optional and has no bearing on whether the document is valid.
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You can revoke your declaration at any time by destroying it, signing a written revocation, executing a new declaration, or telling your attending health care professional out loud, though a spoken revocation only takes effect once the health care professional is actually notified.
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Your written treatment elections here control on their own terms, whether or not you also hold a Healthcare Power of Attorney. The one exception is a direct conflict between the two: Wisconsin law then lets the power of attorney's instructions prevail over what you wrote in this declaration.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Living Will in Wisconsin, 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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Wisconsin Requirements for Living Will
Any Wisconsin resident of sound mind, 18 or older, may voluntarily execute a declaration authorizing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or feeding tubes if certified to have a terminal condition or be in a persistent vegetative state. The statute's own name for this document is a 'declaration,' not a 'living will'; that phrase is common usage, not the operative statutory term.
You may direct that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn if you are certified in writing by two health care professionals, one of whom is a physician, to have a terminal condition: an incurable condition that reasonable medical judgment finds would cause death imminently, so that treatment only postpones death.
You may separately direct that life-sustaining procedures and feeding tubes be withheld or withdrawn if you are certified to be in a persistent vegetative state. Wisconsin's form asks the feeding-tube question as its own distinct yes/no line under this condition, not folded into the general life-sustaining-procedures choice.
You may not authorize withholding any medication, life-sustaining procedure, or feeding tube if your attending health care professional advises that doing so will cause you pain or reduce your comfort that cannot be relieved through pain relief measures.
You must sign in the presence of two adult witnesses. Both witnesses, not just one, must be free of every disqualification: neither may be related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption; entitled to or aware of a claim on your estate; directly financially responsible for your health care; or your health care provider or an employee of your treating facility, unless that employee is a chaplain or social worker. Witnesses must be at least 18.
You may revoke your declaration at any time by destroying it, by a signed and dated written revocation, by executing a subsequent declaration, or by telling your attending health care professional out loud. A spoken revocation only becomes effective once the health care professional is actually notified of it, by you or by a witness to the statement.
A health care professional or witness who acts in good faith in reliance on a declaration is immune from civil or criminal liability. A health care professional who will not comply with a valid declaration must make a good faith attempt to transfer you to one who will; failing to do so can be treated as unprofessional conduct.
A declaration has no effect during the course of a pregnancy that your attending health care professional has diagnosed.
Wisconsin's Anatomical Gift provisions let you authorize organ, tissue, and eye donation separately from your declaration; hospitals must have procedures in place to inform families of potential donors of their options.
If you have both a declaration under Chapter 154 and a Healthcare Power of Attorney under Chapter 155, and their provisions directly conflict, the power of attorney instrument's provisions supersede the conflicting provisions of the declaration. Review both documents together so your agent's authority and your declaration's instructions point the same direction.
Federal HIPAA regulations govern how your health care agent or family can be authorized to access your protected health information in connection with carrying out your declaration.
A document validly executed in another state or jurisdiction, in compliance with that jurisdiction's law, is recognized in Wisconsin to the extent it is consistent with Wisconsin's own laws governing declarations.
Wisconsin treats feeding tubes as their own specifically-initialed yes/no choice, separate from the general life-sustaining-procedures choice, and asks it under each of the two trigger conditions independently. Leaving a feeding-tube line blank does not withhold feeding tubes; the form defaults to using them. Separately, non-tube nutrition or hydration cannot be withheld unless your attending health care professional advises that administering it is medically contraindicated.
Federal law requires Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities to inform patients in writing of their right under Wisconsin law to execute a declaration and to have it honored.
To ensure your wishes are known, give signed copies of your completed declaration to your physician, your health care agent if you have one, and close family members.
Section 154.01 defines the key terms used throughout the declaration, including 'terminal condition,' 'persistent vegetative state,' 'qualified patient,' 'life-sustaining procedure' (which excludes ordinary nutrition and hydration), and 'feeding tube.'
Wisconsin lets you satisfy the in-person witnessing requirement remotely, by simultaneous two-way, real-time audiovisual communication technology, if a Wisconsin-licensed attorney supervises the signing, you and your witnesses confirm you are physically located in Wisconsin at the time, photo identification is shown if you are not personally known to the witnesses, and the supervising attorney attaches a signed affidavit of compliance.
Wisconsin has no statewide advance-directive registry. Instead, a declarant, or someone the declarant authorizes, may file the declaration for a fee with the Register in Probate of the county where the declarant resides. Filing is optional and does not affect the declaration's validity; it exists purely to make the document easier to locate.
Frequently Asked Questions
In Wisconsin, a living will is the document state law calls a Declaration to Health Care Professionals, created under Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 154. It lets you state, in your own words or using the state's own form, whether you want life-sustaining treatment and feeding tubes used or withheld if you are ever certified to have a terminal condition or to be in a persistent vegetative state. It names no one to decide for you; it is a direct instruction to your health care team, not an agent-designation document.
They are two entirely separate Wisconsin documents under two separate statutes, and they work in opposite ways. Your living will (Chapter 154) is a direct statement, in your own initialed choices, of the treatment you want or refuse; no one decides on your behalf, because this document names no agent at all. A Healthcare Power of Attorney (Chapter 155) instead names a person to decide for you, rather than putting your wishes on the page yourself. You can sign either alone or both together. If you sign both and they directly conflict, Wisconsin law lets the power of attorney's instructions control, so most people treat this declaration as their primary statement of intent and the power of attorney as a backstop naming someone to fill in whatever it doesn't cover. See Wisconsin Healthcare Power of Attorney for that agent-designation document.
They control completely different things at completely different times. A Wisconsin living will (your Declaration to Health Care Professionals) 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 takes effect only at death. Signing one does not replace the other; most people planning end-of-life medical care also want a separate Wisconsin Last Will and Testament for their estate.
Yes. Unlike some states that fold artificial nutrition into one general treatment choice, Wisconsin gives feeding tubes their own initialed yes-or-no line, separate from the life-sustaining-procedures line, and asks it twice: once under a terminal condition and once under a persistent vegetative state. Leaving a feeding-tube line blank does not mean 'no'; Wisconsin's form defaults to using feeding tubes if you don't check a box.
Yes. If your attending health care professional diagnoses you as pregnant, your declaration has no effect for the rest of the pregnancy, no matter what you initialed beforehand. This provision does not apply in every state, so confirm the rule if you move.
You need two adult witnesses, and Wisconsin requires both of them, not just one, to be disinterested: neither may be related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, entitled to any part of your estate, or directly financially responsible for your health care. Neither may be your health care provider or an employee of the facility treating you, unless that employee is a chaplain or a social worker, who are allowed to witness despite working there.
Yes. Wisconsin allows remote execution by simultaneous two-way, real-time audiovisual technology, but only if a Wisconsin-licensed attorney supervises the signing, you and your witnesses confirm you are physically located in Wisconsin at the time, photo identification is shown if you aren't personally known to the witnesses, and the supervising attorney attaches a signed affidavit of compliance to the finished document.
No statewide registry exists in Wisconsin the way some states run one. You may, for a fee, file your declaration with the Register in Probate of the county where you live, but this filing is entirely optional and has no effect on whether your declaration is legally valid. It's a discoverability option, not a validity requirement.
Yes, by default. The treatment elections you initial in this declaration stand on their own and take effect whenever the certifying conditions are met, whether or not you also hold a health care power of attorney. The one exception is a direct conflict: Wisconsin Statutes Section 155.70 says that where a valid power of attorney for health care instrument's provisions directly conflict with this declaration, the power of attorney controls. It's worth reviewing both documents together so your agent isn't put in the position of overriding wishes you actually meant to keep.
Generally yes. Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.11 recognizes a declaration or similar document validly executed under another state's law to the extent it is consistent with Wisconsin's own laws, so a document you signed before moving here typically remains usable.