Make your health care wishes known
Create a Maine health care directive with FindLaw’s attorney-created forms and easy step-by-step process.
Choose your Maine 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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Reliable Maine health care directives from home
If you ever become hospitalized with a terminal condition, you may become unable to communicate your treatment decisions. Your loved ones may then consent to treatments for you that you would not have wanted. To avoid this, you can create a health care directive. A health care directive is a legal document you can use to make your own medical decisions in advance.
Get peace of mind knowing that your medical professionals will have clear instructions on your treatment wishes through your health care directive.
FindLaw provides everything you need:
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 Maine health care directive valid?
Follow these steps to validate your health care directive:
Make decisions on your medical care
Your health care directive is a type of advance health care directive (“advance directive“). It is a binding legal document you can use to give detailed instructions on your health care wishes in advance. You will need to make decisions about whether you would request or refuse life-prolonging treatments if you are suffering from a terminal condition or permanently unconscious.
These are difficult decisions and can be unpleasant to consider. However, it may be reassuring to know that you have made your own choices on end-of-life care issues and that you will not receive treatments you do not want. If you have trouble making these decisions, it may be helpful to discuss them with your loved ones and a trusted primary care physician.
Consider choosing a health care agent
In Maine, you have the option of naming a health care agent to make medical decisions for you if you become unable to make them for yourself. You can make this designation through a document that’s called a durable power of attorney for health care (a “POA”). A POA is another type of advance directive in addition to a health care directive.
When selecting a health care agent, consider whether this person will be able to be assertive with your medical providers and family members to advocate for your wishes. Many people choose a close loved one like a spouse, sibling, parent, or adult child for this important responsibility.
There are specific restrictions on your choice of health care agent under Maine law. You may not choose anyone who owns, operates, or works at a residential care facility where you receive treatment, unless the person is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Before committing to a health care agent, you should talk to this person and make sure that they consent to this designation. You may want to name alternate health care agents too. That way, you have a backup agent in case your first choice becomes unable or unwilling to perform this task.
Sign your health care directive
As part of making your health care directive valid, you need to sign and date it in the presence of two witnesses. Your witnesses should then sign their names to your document.
Distribute your advance directives
After you have signed your documents, you need to make sure they get into the right hands. You will need to give copies to your health care agent so that they understand your medical wishes and end-of-life decisions. Next, you should give your advance directives to your medical professionals so that they can carry out your wishes if necessary. Finally, you should give copies of your advance directives to your close loved ones just in case they accompany you during a medical emergency.
Update your advance directives
A good policy is to review your advance directives every few years at least. This will help to ensure that your selections continue to reflect your preferences. If you have gone through major life events, you may need to update your documents sooner.
For instance, in the event of a long-distance move, you may need to choose a new health care agent who is located closer to you. If you go through a divorce with your health care agent, you will probably need to modify your POA to replace your spouse. You may even want to change the selections in your health care directive due to medical advancements, new diagnoses, or a simple change of heart.
Frequently asked questions about Maine health care directives
No, living wills and wills have similar names, but they have very different uses.
A living will, also referred to a health care directive, is not a will in the traditional sense. You cannot use it to detail who should receive your assets after your death. Instead, you can use a health care directive to describe your medical wishes during your lifetime.
A last will and testament (a “will”) is the foundation of a good estate plan. You can use a will to provide for the distribution of your assets after your death as you see fit. If you have minor children, you can name guardians for them in your will too. You cannot use a will to give medical instructions to your health care providers.
A good estate plan can include both a will and a health care directive. Your will names the beneficiaries of your estate, and your health care directive provides clear instructions to your medical team regarding your treatment wishes.
Yes. According to Maine’s Health Care Decisions Act, your out-of-state advance directives are valid in Maine if they comply with the laws of the state where you created them.
However, if you have recently relocated, it may be time to review your advance directives. State laws are subject to change, so it’s a good idea to create advance directives that are tailored to current Maine law. You can create an attorney-approved Maine health care directive with FindLaw in as little as 30 minutes. You don’t even need to leave the comfort of home to do so.
No, you are under no obligation to create a health care directive or to name a health care agent. Under Maine law, your health care providers cannot require or prohibit advance directives as a condition of treatment.
Although you do not have to create advance directives, you may want to. With a health care directive, you can make your own health care decisions in case you ever become unable to make them for yourself at some point in the future. This helps to ensure that you don’t receive future treatments you do not want. It can even prevent strife among loved ones who may have conflicting opinions about your medical treatments.
If you name a health care agent through a POA, this person will have broad powers over your medical decisions unless you limit their authority. If you lose the capacity to give informed consent on treatment options, your health care agent’s duty is to carry out the terms of your advance directives.
They will be able to make decisions about:
- Hiring and firing medical professionals
- Consenting to surgical treatments and tests
- Providing or withholding life-sustaining treatment
- Tests or procedures related to any physical or mental condition
For issues that are not covered in your advance directives, your health care agent’s duty is to make decisions that are in your best interests and that align with their understanding of your wishes and values.
Your health care agent will also have the ability to review your medical record and disclose your health care information to medical providers. When choosing your health care agent, you should choose the person you trust the most with this sensitive information. If you would like to limit their authority, you can make this clear in the power of attorney document.
Not entirely. A divorce does not revoke the choices in your health care directive. But if you named your former spouse as your health care agent, a divorce, separation, or annulment revokes this designation in Maine. The exception to this would be if the divorce decree or the POA document specify that the designation should survive divorce.
If you have gone through a divorce, it’s probably a good time to review your estate plan, including your advance directives. If your former spouse was your health care agent, you will likely want to change this designation. To do this, you can complete a new health care directive document that names another trusted person for this role.
You have the right to change or revoke your advance directives at any time that you have the mental capacity to do so. However, there are different requirements under Maine law depending on whether you are revoking a health care directive or the designation of an agent.
If you would like to revoke the designation of your health care agent in your POA, you must either do so in writing or by personally informing your health care provider.
You can revoke the instructions in your health care directive through any method that clearly conveys your intention to revoke. This could include burning, tearing, or otherwise physically destroying your health care directive. It could also include a verbal statement. But it’s best to create a written record of your revocation if possible.
After you have revoked your advance directives or created new ones, you need to inform the right people of the changes. You should tell your health care agent, your medical providers, and your loved ones that your wishes have changed. You should then provide them with copies of your updated advance directives so that they have a record of your wishes.
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