Wyoming Living Will Requirements

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   Wyoming's own statute book titles this chapter 'Living Will' (Title 35, Chapter 22), yet the operative law inside it, the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act, never actually uses that phrase. What you are completing is legally called an 'individual instruction,' your own direction about your health care; naming a decision-maker is a separate function inside the same law.

2. 2

   A living will is not a last will and testament. A living will covers medical treatment while you are alive but unable to communicate; a last will and testament covers who inherits your property after you die. Most Wyoming residents preparing one eventually want the other too.

3. 3

   Wyoming does not require your individual instruction to be signed, witnessed, or notarized. You may even give it orally to your health care provider, though writing it down avoids any dispute later about what you actually said.

4. 4

   Naming a health care agent works differently. That portion of the same document must be signed and either acknowledged before a notary or signed by two qualifying witnesses.

5. 5

   Witness eligibility only becomes a question if you also name a health care agent in this document. Your own treatment-wishes instruction needs no witness at all, so the witness-disqualification list (who cannot witness the agent-naming signature) is entirely a Healthcare Power of Attorney topic; see Wyoming Healthcare Power of Attorney for that list.

6. 6

   There is no statutory form for either the treatment-wishes or agent-designation portion, and no fixed list of trigger conditions. You describe your own wishes and your own conditions in your own words.

7. 7

   Artificial nutrition and hydration falls under your general treatment instruction automatically. Wyoming does not require you to address it as a separate, individually initialed choice.

8. 8

   Wyoming's Health Care Decisions Act includes no pregnancy-exclusion clause of any kind. Your instruction keeps its full effect no matter your pregnancy status.

9. 9

   Revoking your agent's authority takes a signed writing. Your treatment-wishes instruction is looser to revoke; you can undo it at any time, in any manner that communicates you mean to.

10. 10

    Wyoming keeps no state registry for living wills or advance health care directives. Give your signed copy directly to your physician, your agent if you name one, and anyone else who might need it in an emergency.

Wyoming Requirements for Living Will

• Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act Authority (W.S. 35-22-401 through 416)

  Wyoming does not have a legally separate living-will statute. W.S. 35-22-401 through 416 (the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act, housed inside a chapter Wyoming's own statute book titles 'Living Will') defines one concept, the advance health care directive, as an individual instruction (your treatment wishes), a power of attorney for health care (your agent designation), or both together.

• Capacity Requirement (W.S. 35-22-402(a)(iv), 35-22-412)

  You must be an adult or emancipated minor with capacity, meaning the ability to understand the significant benefits, risks, and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health care decision. You are presumed to have capacity unless your primary physician has certified in writing that you lack it.

• Witness Requirements for a Health Care Agent Designation (W.S. 35-22-403(c))

  If you name a health care agent, that portion of the document must be signed by at least two adult witnesses (unless notarized instead). A witness may not be a treating health care provider or its employee, the named agent, or the operator or an employee of a community care facility or residential care facility. Unlike many states, Wyoming does not disqualify a witness for being related to you by blood or marriage, for standing to inherit from you, or for being a creditor. This witness requirement applies to the agent-designation portion; Wyoming does not require witnesses for the treatment-wishes instruction on its own.

• Notarization Alternative for a Health Care Agent Designation (W.S. 35-22-403(b))

  As an alternative to two witnesses, the agent-designation portion of your document may instead be acknowledged before a notarial officer. Both routes are independently sufficient; neither is a backup for the other. Wyoming's statute does not disqualify the named agent from also serving as the notary.

• Healthcare Agent Designation (W.S. 35-22-403(b))

  Sections 403(b) through (g) let you name a health care agent inside the same advance health care directive. That is a separate function from the treatment-wishes instruction covered on this page: naming an agent gives someone else decision-making authority rather than stating your own wishes directly, and it is the only portion of the document Wyoming law requires to be formally signed and notarized or witnessed. For full agent-designation guidance, see Wyoming Healthcare Power of Attorney.

• Agent Authority Timing and Limitations (W.S. 35-22-403(b), (d))

  Unless your document states otherwise, your agent's authority becomes effective only once your primary physician determines you lack capacity, and ends if you regain it. You may instead state that your agent's authority begins immediately upon signing. This is agent-designation content; see Wyoming Healthcare Power of Attorney for full guidance on scoping your agent's authority.

• Stating Your Own End-of-Life Wishes (W.S. 35-22-403(a))

  Wyoming has no statutory form and no fixed list of trigger conditions for your individual instruction. Section 403(a) only lets you limit it to take effect if a specified condition arises, whatever condition you write. You describe, in your own words, whether and when you want life-sustaining treatment provided, withheld, or withdrawn; the law imposes no mandatory content or phrasing.

• Revocation Procedures (W.S. 35-22-404)

  Wyoming treats revocation of your treatment-wishes instruction very differently from revocation of your agent's authority. You may revoke your individual instruction at any time and in any manner that communicates your intent to revoke, including orally, though an oral revocation should afterward be documented in a signed, dated writing as a recordkeeping matter. Revoking your agent's designation, by contrast, requires a signed writing; there is no oral or conduct-based option for that portion. Capacity is required to revoke either portion.

• Organ Donation (W.S. 35-5-201 through 225)

  The Wyoming Uniform Anatomical Gift Act lets you authorize organ and tissue donation. Wyoming's advance health care directive does not itself include a statutory organ-donation form section, but you may address your donation wishes separately under this Act.

• HIPAA Authorization (45 CFR 164.508)

  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 document takes effect. This authorization supports the agent-decision-maker function; it does not expand or change your own treatment-wishes instruction.

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

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

• Healthcare Provider Immunity (W.S. 35-22-410)

  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 discipline for complying with, or declining to comply with, a health care decision or advance health care directive under the Act.

• Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (W.S. 35-22-402(a)(iii), (ix)(C))

  Artificial nutrition and hydration is defined in the Act and is included automatically within the general definition of a health care decision you can direct through your individual instruction. Wyoming does not require, or offer through any statutory form, a separate initialed choice specifically for artificial nutrition and hydration.

• Guardian Nomination Within Your Directive (W.S. 35-22-403(h))

  Your written advance health care directive may include your nomination of a guardian of the person, addressing your preference directly inside this same document rather than only through a separate court guardianship proceeding.

• Individual Instruction Needs No Signature or Witness (W.S. 35-22-403(a))

  your individual instruction, the treatment-wishes portion of your advance health care directive, may be given orally or in writing with no signature, witness, or notarization required by statute. This differs sharply from the agent-designation portion of the same document, which does require formal signing and notarization or two witnesses.