Wisconsin Living Will Requirements

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   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.

2. 2

   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.

3. 3

   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.

4. 4

   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.

5. 5

   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.

6. 6

   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.

7. 7

   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.

8. 8

   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.

9. 9

   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.

Wisconsin Requirements for Living Will

• Declaration Authority (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Terminal Condition Treatment Preferences (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Persistent Vegetative State Provisions (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Pain Relief Limitation (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Witness Requirements (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Revocation Procedures (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.05)

  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.

• Healthcare Provider Immunity (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.07)

  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.

• Pregnancy Provisions (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  A declaration has no effect during the course of a pregnancy that your attending health care professional has diagnosed.

• Organ Donation Wishes (Wisconsin Statutes Section 157.06)

  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.

• Coordination with Healthcare Power of Attorney (Wisconsin Statutes Section 155.70)

  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.

• HIPAA Authorization (45 CFR Section 164.508)

  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.

• Out-of-State Recognition (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.11(9))

  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.

• Feeding Tube Election (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Patient Self-Determination Act Compliance (42 U.S.C. Section 1395cc(f))

  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.

• Distribution of Your Declaration (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03)

  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.

• Definitions (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.01)

  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.'

• Remote Video Execution (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.03(3))

  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.

• County Filing Option (Wisconsin Statutes Section 154.13)

  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.