Make your health care wishes known
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Utah health care directives from the comfort of home
If you ever become seriously ill or injured, you may become unable to make your own health care decisions. If you do not have a health care directive in place, your doctors and loved ones may then make medical choices for you that you would not have wanted. With a health care directive, you can make treatment choices in advance of an incapacitating condition. This can give you peace of mind and may prevent conflicts among loved ones who have differences of opinion on your future medical care.
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 Utah health care directive valid?
Follow these steps:
Make decisions on future health care issues
Your health care directive is a type of advance care directive (“advance directive“). You can use it to make choices on potential future medical treatments as you see fit. In your health care directive, you will decide whether you would request or refuse life-prolonging treatments and under what medical conditions. Life-prolonging treatments include things like artificial nutrition and hydration, dialysis, and more.
These choices are highly personal, and it can be unpleasant to consider them. But it may give you peace of mind to know that you have made your own choices regarding the provision or withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures in the event of a terminal or vegetative condition. If you have difficulty with these decisions, you may want to discuss them with your doctor or your loved ones.
Choose a health care agent
In Utah, you have the option of choosing someone to make medical decisions for you in the event that you become unable to do so. The document you use to designate this person is called a health care power of attorney. This is another type of advance directive in addition to a health care directive.
The person you choose to make health care decisions for you is called a health care agent. This person should be someone you trust with broad powers over your medical treatment. It’s a good idea to choose an alternate health care agent in case your first choice becomes unable to take on this role.
You should select a health care agent who understands your health care preferences and is willing to carry them out. Another consideration is whether this person will be able to be assertive with your family members and doctors to advocate for your medical care wishes. Many people choose a close loved one like a spouse, sibling, adult child, or parent for this role.
You should be aware that there are certain legal restrictions in this area. You may not choose the following individuals as your health care agent:
- Your health care provider
- An owner or operator of a health care facility where you receive care
- An employee of a health care facility where you are being treated
However, the above restrictions do not apply to anyone who is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Sign your health care directive
In Utah, there are strict requirements regarding the execution of health care directives. You should sign the document or direct someone to sign it for you. There must be at least one adult witness present at the time of signing. This person must also sign. According to Utah’s Advance Health Care Directive Act, the witness should be “disinterested.” In other words, they should not have anything to gain or lose by your decisions.
There are several restrictions on who may act as your witness. These restrictions eliminate most people who could have a conflict of interest or bias when it comes to your health care directive.
Under Utah law, you may not choose the following individuals as a witness:
- The person who signed your health care directive on your behalf
- Anyone who is related to you
- Your health care agent
- Anyone who would inherit from you
- Your health care provider
- An administrator of your health care facility
- Anyone who would benefit financially from your death
- Someone who is financially responsible for your health care
- A beneficiary of your insurance policy, trust, qualified plan, account, trust, or deed.
This long list of restrictions will probably eliminate most of the people in your inner circle from witnessing your health care directive. You may need to ask an acquaintance like a neighbor or a coworker to act as a witness instead.
Distribute your advance directives
After you have signed your advance directives, you need to make sure to distribute them to the right people. Your health care agent will need a copy to help them better understand your health care wishes. Your medical providers should have a copy of your advance directives for your medical record. Finally, your loved ones should have your advance directives in case they ever 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 helps to ensure that they continue to reflect your wishes. You may need to update your advance directives earlier if you have gone through significant life changes. The following circumstances could cause you to rethink your choices:
- Marriage or divorce
- Relocation
- Conflict with your health care agent
- Advances in medical technology
In the case of marriage, divorce, or conflict, you may want to change your health care agent. If you or your health care agent has relocated, you may need to choose an agent who lives within a closer proximity to you. You may also need to update other estate planning documents like your will as a result of these circumstances.
Regardless of the reason, you have the right to change your advance directives whenever you see fit.
Utah health care directive frequently asked questions
No. A will and a living will have confusingly similar names, but they are very different legal documents.
A last will and testament (a “will”) is the main estate planning document. You can use a will to describe who should receive your assets after your death. If you have minor children, you can name guardians for them in a will.
A living will, also known as a health care directive, is a legal document you can use to describe your health care wishes in the event you become unable to make your own health care decisions. Your health care directive is only valid during your lifetime, and you cannot use it to provide for the distribution of your assets after your death.
You may create both a will and a health care directive as different parts of a comprehensive estate plan. Your will describes your wishes for the distribution of your property after your death, and your health care directive contains your medical care wishes.
No, it is your choice whether you create advance directives. According to Utah statutes, your health care providers cannot require or prohibit advance directives as a requirement for providing medical services.
Even though you are under no obligation to create a health care directive or a health care power of attorney, you may choose to do so. Many people have strong opinions about issues like life support in the event of a terminal or vegetative state. If you would like to make sure that your medical wishes are followed in that type of scenario, you should create a health care directive. Your health care directive can spell out your choices regarding life-sustaining treatments, when you would request them, and when you would refuse them.
Further, you may want to name a trusted person as your health care agent through a health care power of attorney. This way, you will know that you will have a reliable person ready to make medical decisions and carry out the terms of your health care directive if necessary.
If you become medically incapacitated and do not have a health care agent or guardian, a health care surrogate may need to be appointed for you.
Under Utah law, there are several categories of close family members who will act as your surrogate if you have not chosen a health care agent. Under these laws, your spouse, adult child, parent, or other close family member will be chosen as your surrogate. If none of your close family members are available, an adult who has shown special care for you and who understands your personal values can fill this role.
If you would like to make your own decision on who will make your health care choices in the event of medical incapacity, you should sign an advance directive that names a health care agent of your choice. You should name an alternate health care agent too, just in case your first choice becomes unable to take on this responsibility.
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, this designation is revoked by a divorce. One exception to this would be if you stated that the designation should survive divorce in your advance directives. Another exception would be if you somehow confirmed your intention to keep your former spouse as your health care agent in spite of a divorce.
After going through a divorce, it’s a good time to update your advance directives. If your former spouse was your health care agent, you will probably want to choose a new one. Further, it’s possible that this major life event may have caused you to rethink unrelated health care choices.
If you have had a change of heart, you have the right to revoke your advance directives at any time. Under Utah law, there are several ways to revoke:
- Write “void” across the document, tear it up, burn it, obliterate it, otherwise physically destroy it, or direct someone to do so on your behalf.
- Create a written revocation. You need to sign and date this document or direct someone to do so for you.
- Create new advance directives. If you do this, the newer documents will revoke the prior ones to the extent that the documents conflict.
- If there is no other option available to you, you can verbally express your intention to revoke in front of an adult witness.
Note that there are restrictions on your choice of witnesses for a verbal revocation. These are similar to the health care directive witness restrictions covered above. The restrictions disqualify your relatives, beneficiaries, heirs, health care agent, and health care workers. In other words, anyone who could be biased or has a conflict of interest may not witness the oral revocation.
You should only rely on a verbal revocation as a last resort. Creating a new health care directive is a better way of revoking a prior one. By choosing this method, you create a new record that makes your updated medical care wishes clear. This can be a great help to your health care agent, your medical team, and your loved ones in understanding your health care wishes. You can make a new health care directive with FindLaw’s easy guided process in about half an hour.
If you revoke your advance directives or create new ones, you should make sure to tell your health care agent, loved ones, and medical staff about the changes. This will keep them updated on your most current medical preferences.
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
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