Make your health care wishes known

No. Wills and living wills have confusingly similar names, but they are very different legal documents. A last will and testament (a “will”) is the primary estate planning document. You can use a will to describe how you would like your property to be distributed after your death. If you have minor children, you can name guardians for them through your will too.

A living will is not a will in the traditional sense. Also known as a health care directive, a living will is a legal document you can use to make health care choices in advance. You cannot use your health care directive to provide for the distribution of your assets after your death. Your health care directive is also known as the “Oklahoma Statutory Advance Directive for Health Care.”

A comprehensive estate plan can contain both a will and a health care directive. Your will describes where your assets will go after your death, and your health care directive details your medical preferences during your lifetime.

Technically, yes. But there are strict rules regarding out-of-state health care directives.

Under Oklahoma law, an out-of-state advance directive that authorizes the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment or designates a health care agent can be valid. But it must have been legally executed in the other state or in compliance with Oklahoma law. There are also further requirements to make your out-of-state health care directive valid in Oklahoma. The document must not contain provisions that are illegal in Oklahoma.

Further, an out-of-state health care directive that specifically authorizes the withholding of artificial hydration or nutrition is only valid in Oklahoma if:

• You signed the document when you were not a resident of Oklahoma; or
• The provisions on the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment are in your own words in a separately signed section

These restrictions could be difficult to satisfy, and it is unlikely that your health care directive from another state will meet them. With that in mind, it is probably safer and more efficient to simply create a new health care directive than relying on an old one.

You can create a new Oklahoma health care directive with FindLaw’s easy step-by-step process in less than an hour. You don’t even need to leave the comfort of home to complete it.

Generally, yes. Your medical staff has a duty to follow the instructions in your advance directives, even if it means transferring you to another health care provider.

According to Oklahoma law, your physician must take reasonable steps to transfer you to another health care provider as promptly as possible if they are unwilling to carry out the terms of your advance directives.

So, even if your medical staff refuses to honor your advance directives, they must eventually transfer you to providers who will comply with your wishes.

Yes. In Oklahoma, your medical professionals are required to provide you with pain relieving medicine or other comfort care treatments. This continues to be true even if they withhold life-sustaining treatments in accordance with your instructions. Of course, if you are able to eat and drink, your care providers must provide you with food and water.

If you have changed your mind, you have the right to revoke your health care directive at any time you choose. Your mental or physical condition has no effect on your ability to revoke.

You can perform a revocation in any manner of your choice. This might include burning, tearing up, or otherwise physically destroying your document. However, a better option is to create a written document that revokes your prior health care directive. Oklahoma statutes make it clear that if you create a new health care directive that conflicts with a prior one, the new document revokes the earlier one.

You can create a new Oklahoma health care directive with FindLaw in under an hour to revoke a prior one. This is a good option because it provides your family and health care professionals with clear instructions for your possible future treatments.

If you revoke your advance directives, you should make sure to inform the right people about this change. Your health care agent will need to know so they can adjust their understanding of your medical wishes. Make sure to let your medical providers know about your revocation and new health care directive so that they can enter it into your medical record. Your revocation will not be active unless your medical team actually knows about it.

If you filed your health care directive with an advance directive registry, you should contact the registry to remove your document. Finally, you should tell your loved ones about the revocation or new document. This will ensure that they are aware of your most current medical wishes.