Make your health care wishes known
Create an Indiana health care directive with FindLaw’s attorney-created forms and easy step-by-step process.
Choose your Indiana health care directive options
Make your health care wishes known so you stay in control of your treatment with a health care directive. Ensure comprehensive protection for you and your loved ones and secure your future with an estate planning forms package.
Health Care Directive
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Quick, easy, reliable Indiana health care directives
If you ever suffer from a terminal illness, you may become unable to express your choices on medical treatments. Your medical professionals may then administer treatments you would not have wanted. To prevent this, you can create a health care directive. In your health care directive, you can state whether you would refuse certain end-of-life medical procedures that only prolong natural death. Although this is unpleasant to consider, it can give you peace of mind to know that you have made your own choices on these possible future treatments.
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How it works
The process takes less than an hour, and you can complete it from the comfort of your home.
Create an account
Create a secure account which is accessible through an easy dashboard you can access any time
Gather information
Decide who will be your health care agent/proxy, which treatments you would request or refuse and release your records
Complete your document
Answer all questions, then we’ll generate your digital documents for downloading, printing, and signing
Make it legal
Print and sign your document according to instructions. Give copies to your doctors and agent/proxy
Plan for your future with confidence
This free guide will help you:
Learn the most common estate planning terms
Understand the essential estate planning tools
Gather critical information with an estate planning checklist
What’s next to make my Indiana health care directive valid?
Follow these legal requirements to validate your Indiana health care directive:
Make decisions on medical treatments
Health care directives are a type of advance health care directive (“advance directive“). You can use a health care directive to choose which medical procedures you would request or refuse if you become incapacitated with a terminal condition. In your health care directive, you will state whether you would refuse treatments that would artificially prolong the natural dying process.
Further, you will use your health care directive to choose whether you would rather receive or reject artificial nutrition and hydration. These issues are unpleasant to consider, but it can be a relief to know that you have made your own choices on end-of-life care. If you have any trouble with these choices, it may help to discuss them with a trusted doctor or loved one.
Choose a health care representative
According to title 30 of the Indiana statutes, you have the option of creating an additional advance directive called a health care power of attorney. Through this document, you can choose a trusted person to make health care decisions for you if you lose the ability to make them for yourself. The person you choose is typically called a health care representative in Indiana. People may also refer to them as a health care proxy or health care agent. Their legal duty is to make medical decisions based on your instructions and your best interests.
You do not have to create a health care power of attorney, but you may want to. By selecting a health care representative, you are naming the person of your choice to make treatment decisions for you in case you become unable to give informed consent for yourself. This can be a good addition to a health care directive. Your health care representative will be able to make medical choices for you in serious medical situations that might not be covered by the provisions in your health care directive document.
If you select a health care agent, you should choose someone who understands your health care wishes, and who will be able to be assertive with your family and doctors. You may also want to think about logistical considerations such as proximity. The person you choose should be someone who will be able to be at your side promptly when you need them. Many people choose a close loved one for this role. You might consider your spouse, a parent, an adult sibling, or an adult child.
Sign your health care directive
To make your health care directive a legal document, you must voluntarily sign and date it. If you are unable to do so, you can ask someone to sign and date it on your behalf. There should be at least two competent adult witnesses present at the time of your signature. They must sign the document too.
Title 16 of the Indiana statutes lays out a few restrictions on witnesses. If someone signed your document on your behalf, this person does not qualify as a witness. So, you will need to find two witnesses in addition to the person who signs for you.
You may not choose any of the following individuals as witnesses:
- Somebody who could inherit from you
- Your parent, spouse, or child
- Anyone who is financially responsible for your medical care
You may need to reach out to friends, neighbors, or coworkers to find witnesses who are not on this restricted list.
Distribute your advance directives
After you have properly signed your advance directives, you need to make sure to get them into the right hands. You should give copies to your health care representative to make them familiar with your medical wishes.
Your health care providers will also need copies so that they can enter them into your medical record and follow your instructions if necessary.
Finally, it’s a good idea to give copies of your advance directives to your close loved ones and place a copy in a safe place that they can access.
Update your advance directives
You should look over your advance directives from time to time to make sure that they continue to reflect your wishes. A good policy is to review them every few years at least. However, you may need to update them sooner if you go through certain major life events.
For instance, if you go through a divorce or complete a long-distance move, you may need to choose a new health care representative. In the event of a change of diagnosis, you may wish to modify the selections in your health care directive. Advances in medical technology or a simple change of heart could make you rethink your advance directives too.
Rest assured that you can make unlimited updates to your health care directive at no additional charge for a full year after purchase if you create it through FindLaw.
Questions people often ask about Indiana health care directives
No, living wills and wills have similar names but they serve very different purposes.
A last will and testament (a “will”) is the main estate planning document. You can use a will to describe how you would like your assets to be distributed after your death. If you have minor children, you can name guardians for them in a will too. However, a will does not cover medical issues or advance choices on treatments.
With a living will, also called a health care directive, you can make your own determinations on future medical treatments in case you become unable to express your wishes. If you would rather refuse life-sustaining treatments that would only prolong the natural dying process, you can make this clear in a health care directive. Although a health care directive is an important legal document, you cannot use it to provide for the distribution of your assets after your death.
A good estate plan can contain both a health care directive, and a testamentary will. Your will covers issues related to your possessions and finances, and your health care directive covers future medical issues.
To create a health care directive under Indiana law, you need to fulfill certain requirements:
- You must be of sound mind and at least 18 years old
- The document must be in writing
- You must sign and date the document or direct someone to do so for you
- You must sign voluntarily
- The signature must occur in the presence of at least two competent adult witnesses, who also sign the document
- The document must be in substantially the same format as the statutory form but can contain additions and changes
If you purchase your health care directive through FindLaw, you can relax knowing that it is attorney-approved to comply with Indiana’s laws on advance directives.
Under Indiana law, you can create an advance directive called a life-prolonging procedures will. You would use a life-prolonging procedures will if you want to request that all available life-sustaining procedures be provided for you in the event of a terminal or irreversible condition. If you wish to refuse medical treatments that would artificially extend your life, you should create a health care directive, and not a life-prolonging procedures will. Remember that you do not have to refuse all life-prolonging treatments if you create a health care directive. For example, you could decide that you want to refuse artificial ventilation but would like to request artificial hydration.
Whether you choose a health care directive or a life-prolonging procedures will depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you would like to refuse medical treatments, you should use a health care directive. But to request all life-prolonging treatments, you will execute a life-prolonging procedures will.
This is a highly individual decision. It will depend on your personal values, preferences, medical diagnosis, and other factors that are unique to your situation.
Your health care directive does not become operative simply because you are hospitalized or endure a medical emergency. Your doctors will only act on the instructions in your advance directives if you are suffering from a terminal condition. Indiana statutes define this as a condition that has no chance of recovery and that will cause death in a short period of time.
Before carrying out the terms of your health care directive, your attending physician must certify in writing that you are suffering from a terminal condition. Under Indiana law, they must then enter this certification in your medical record.
You have the right to change your mind about your treatment preferences at any time you choose. Under Indiana law, there are three ways to legally revoke your document:
- Create a written revocation. You must sign and date this document.
- Make a verbal statement of your revocation
- Physically destroy or cancel your document
Although verbal or physical revocations are legally valid, it’s better to create a written revocation. This provides your doctors and loved ones with an updated understanding of your wishes. You can create a new health care directive that revokes your prior ones with FindLaw’s guided step-by-step process in about half an hour.
If you revoke your health care directive or create a new one, you should inform the right people of the change as soon as possible. Further, you should give copies of any new advance directives to your health care representative, your doctors, and your close loved ones.
You may want to speak with a lawyer if:
- Your family disagrees with your medical choices
- You don’t know who to appoint as your agent
- You have questions about life prolonging measures
- You want legal review of your completed document