There are a few standard requirements that you must fulfill in order to create a valid Alabama health care directive and living will:

• You must be a competent adult, age 19 or older.
• The health care directive and living will must be in writing
• The health care directive and living will must be in substantially the same form as the statutory living will form. However, it does not need to be exactly the same and can include additional specific directions.
• You need to sign and date the health care directive and living will or direct someone to sign and date it for you.
• There must be at least two witnesses present when you sign your health care directive and living will. They must be at least 19 years old.

The following people cannot be your health care directive and living will witnesses under Alabama law:

• Relatives
• Anyone who stands to inherit from you
• Anyone who is financially responsible for your healthcare
• Your health care proxy
• If someone signed your health care directive and living will for you, this person does not qualify as one of the required witnesses either.

This list may eliminate most of the people in your close inner circle. You may need to ask friends, coworkers, your attorney, a notary public, or other community members to do so.

Yes, a health care directive and living will that you created in another state and in accordance with that state’s laws is valid under Alabama law. But if you have moved to Alabama from another state, it is a good idea to create a health care directive and living will that is customized to Alabama law. This will eliminate the risk that any provisions in your out-of-state health care directive and living will could be prohibited in Alabama. With FindLaw, you can create a health care directive and living will tailored to Alabama law for only $35.

A divorce does not completely invalidate an Alabama health care directive and living will. But if you named your former spouse as your health care proxy, a divorce revokes this provision.

If you have gone through a divorce, it’s a good idea to create a new health care directive and living will. This way, you can make your updated wishes clear and choose a new health care proxy. If you want to keep your former spouse as your health care proxy, you will need a new health care directive and living will to make it clear that this is really your preference despite the divorce.

In Alabama, your health care proxy’s decisions can take precedence over your health care directive and living will on end-of-life and life-sustaining treatments. If you would prefer that your living will would govern in this situation, that needs to be clear in the document itself.

You can revoke your Alabama health care directive and living will in a few ways:

• Make a written revocation of your health care directive and living will
• Make a verbal revocation of your health care directive and living will. There must be at least one witness age 19 or older to your verbal revocation. They must then sign and date a written confirmation of your revocation.
• Tear, burn, obliterate, or otherwise physically destroy the health care directive and living will with intention to revoke.

When you revoke a health care directive and living will, you should let your family members and health care proxy know about it. If you stored your living will with a health care directive and living will registry, you should then contact them to remove your revoked health care directive and living will. After revoking your health care directive and living will, you should consider creating a new one that reflects your new medical care preferences.