Make your health care wishes known
Create a West Virginia health care directive with FindLaw’s attorney-created forms and easy step-by-step process.
Choose your West Virginia 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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The benefits of a West Virginia health care directive
In the event you become incapacitated, a West Virginia health care directive ensures your medical wishes are carried out. Through this document (also called a “Combined Medical Power of Attorney and Living Will”) you can leave individual instructions about your desired end-of-life care and life-sustaining treatment. A health care directive protects your autonomy, eases the burden on loved ones should the worst happen, and helps your medical team provide faster treatment that aligns with your values. Because FindLaw has made the process simple, easy, and quick, there’s no reason not to have one.
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 West Virginia health care directive valid?
Follow these steps:
Make essential choices about your health care
You must decide what sort of care you want should you are ever unresponsive and facing a terminal illness or condition. The types of care you’ll want to address in your health care directive include:
- Life-prolonging treatments
- Admittance into long-term care
- Admittance into hospice care
- Allowing or prolonging a natural death
- Wishes about resuscitation
- Withdrawal of life support
- Use of feeding tubes
- Use of blood transfusions
Choose a health care agent
A health care agent makes medical decisions on your behalf when you are unable to. When choosing a health care agent, you should look for certain characteristics. In addition to being at least 18 years old, a health care agent must be someone you trust to make medical decisions that align with your values. They should live in the vicinity so that they can be there for you when you are incapacitated.
You should also consider naming an alternate agent in case your primary agent is unavailable.
Choose appropriate witnesses
Under West Virginia law, your health care directive must have the signatures of at least two people. These witnesses cannot be:
- A person who signed the health care directive for the principal at the principal’s direction
- A relative of the principal either by blood or marriage
- Named as a beneficiary of the principal’s estate, whether by will or by operation of law
- Be the financially responsible party for the principal’s medical bills
- The principal’s attending physician
- The principal’s power of attorney or successor medical power of attorney
Sign and notarize
In West Virginia, the person making a health care directive, or another person whom the principal chose to sign in their place, must sign the document in front of at least two adult witnesses. The principal’s and the witnesses’ signatures must be notarized.
Frequently asked questions about West Virginia health care directives
A health care directive is a legal document created by an individual to state their medical treatment preferences in the event of their incapacity. This document protects patients by keeping them in control of their medical care even if they cannot speak.
In West Virginia, a health care directive is legally valid if it meets the following requirements:
- Your health care directive must be in writing.
- It must be signed by the principal or by someone else whom the principal directs to sign in their place if the principal is physically unable to sign themselves.
- The document must be dated.
- The document must be witnessed by at least two witnesses.
- The document must be notarized.
Only you can revoke or amend your health care directive. Your health care agent and medical team are legally required to respect your wishes. You have the final say about your medical treatment preferences.
Every adult in West Virginia should have a health care directive. FindLaw’s do-it-yourself option allows you create this essential legal document in the comfort of your own home and without the cost associated with going to an attorney.
You do not need to hire an attorney to complete your health care directive. FindLaw’s team of attorneys has drafted West Virginia health care directive form that you can trust to help you complete this legal document quickly and easily.
FindLaw is not a law firm, and the forms are not a substitute for the advice or services of an attorney. If you have a unique family situation, anticipate a family member objecting to your medical treatment preferences, or otherwise have questions, you can contact a local attorney with FindLaw’s attorney database.
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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