Quickly create your Wyoming health care directive
You can complete FindLaw’s attorney-created health care directive forms in less than an hour at home. Our guided process takes you through a few easy steps and includes a free HIPAA release form. You’ll be able to download, print and sign your documents in no time.
Wyoming health care directive options that work for you
Health Care Directive
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A health care directive allows you to continue making health care decisions for yourself if you are dying and unable to communicate your choices regarding end-of-life medical treatment. By relaying your wishes to your doctors and loved ones about medical intervention, a health care directive keeps them from needing to guess the answers to difficult questions about your treatment when you can’t speak for yourself. A clearly worded health care directive provides your family members with certainty regarding your wishes and ensures your choices will be respected.
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 Wyoming health care directive valid?
Choose when you would like your medical treatment to be limited or withdrawn
In Wyoming, a health care directive is often referred to as “instructions for health care,” but the terms are used interchangeably. A health care directive can provide instructions to your family and doctors regarding which types of life-sustaining care you should receive if you suffer from a condition or injury that can’t be cured and will eventually result in your death. Other situations, such as if you are temporarily incapacitated following an accident, should be addressed using a power of attorney for health care.
Treatments usually addressed in a health care directive include:
- When cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should be administered
- The use of a respirator if you can’t breathe on your own
- Taking food or liquids through a feeding tube
- Surgery or invasive diagnostic tests
- The treatment of infections with antibiotics or other medication
- How long you should receive dialysis, if needed
- End-of-life (palliative care) choices regarding things like pain management
- Whether you would like your organs, tissue, or body to be donated
Decide whether you want to give someone health care power of attorney
Wyoming law only lets a health care directive dictate your medical care when you are dying or have been rendered permanently unconscious. That means you will need to give someone health care power of attorney to address other situations where you may need medical treatment and are unable to make decisions on your own but still expected to recover. The person to whom you give medical power of attorney is sometimes known as a health care agent or proxy.
A person who has been given health care power of attorney can make the following decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated:
- What medical care you should receive
- The hospital or other facility where you will be treated
- The doctors and health care providers who will treat you
- Whether you should be moved to an assisted living facility, nursing home, or other long-term care facility
Remember, while a health care power of attorney lets someone else make medical decisions on your behalf, a health care directive is usually considered the final word with regard to your end-of-life care. The terms of a health care directive often override the decisions of both your health care proxy and your doctor.
Write your health care directive
Your Wyoming health care directive should be in writing. Regardless of whether you choose to draft the document yourself, hire an attorney, or use a safe and easy service like FindLaw’s, the language you use in your health care directive is vital to its effectiveness.
The best way to ensure that your document is clear as to your intentions is to begin with a blanket statement as to whether you want life-prolonging treatment if you are terminally ill. That can be followed by a list of common medical treatments that are provided to terminally ill patients and whether you would like to accept or reject that treatment. Including those two elements should help remove any ambiguity regarding your wishes.
Sign your health care directive
Executing a legal document is the process of signing it to make it legal. To be legally valid in Wyoming you will need to sign and date your health care directive in front of two or more adult witnesses. No witnesses are required if the health care directive has been notarized.
Wyoming law does place limits on who can serve as a witness to the signing of your health care directive. The two people who witness your health care directive must meet the following criteria:
- At least 18 years old
- Not your appointed health care agent
- Not related to you
- Not directly financially responsible for your health care
- Not your current health care provider
- Not an employee of your health care provider
- Not aware that they are entitled to the proceeds of your estate
Distribute copies of your health care directive
You should make several copies of your signed health care directive document and keep the original in a safe place where your family or attorney know where to find it. Give copies to anyone whom you have given durable medical power of attorney, your primary care doctor, any medical specialists you are seeing, and any medical facility where you are likely to receive treatment. You should also keep copies available in case you need to provide them to additional people or facilities.
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
Ready to start your Wyoming health care directive?
Create my health care directiveWyoming health care directive commonly asked questions
A health care directive is an important part of any estate plan because it provides guidance to your doctors and loved ones on your wishes for end-of-life medical care. Even if you have made it clear to your family that you would like to stop medical treatment if you are terminally ill and unresponsive, actually asking that care be withheld can be stressful and upsetting to your loved ones. A health care directive should spare them from having to make those difficult decisions.
A Wyoming health care directive can also avoid disputes between your family members who may disagree as to what you would have wanted. These disputes can create rifts and animosity between your loved ones that can sometimes end up in court.
Health care procedures usually addressed in a health care directive include:
- CPR
- Breathing tubes or ventilators
- Feeding tubes
- Palliative care that limits treatments to those that would make you comfortable in your final days
- Donating organs, tissues, and your body
A living will serves a different purpose than your last will and testament. Your will tells your survivors how you would like your property to be distributed after you die and how your loved ones should be cared for. A living will, also known as a health care directive, takes effect while you are still alive and provides your family and doctors with guidance on your wishes regarding medical treatment if you are terminally ill and unable to communicate.
Wyoming state law allows anyone who is over the age of 18 and of sound mind to create a health care directive. In Wyoming, someone will usually be found to be of sound mind when they have not been deemed incompetent in a prior legal proceeding.
In Wyoming, your health care directive only goes into effect when you are terminally ill or permanently unresponsive. If you would like to give someone else the right to manage your care during times when you are unresponsive, but expected to recover, you should give that person health care power of attorney. For example, if you are unconscious following a car accident but doctors expect you to pull through, someone with power of attorney can dictate your care, but not your health care directive. However, doctors will look to your health care directive when deciding on your medical treatment if they believe you will not survive your injuries.
You do not need to use a lawyer to create a health care directive in Wyoming. You can create a valid health care directive in a few easy steps using a service like FindLaw.
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 complicated personal situation and are concerned that your health care directive is going to be challenged, it might be worth visiting a local attorney. A lawyer can answer any questions about your unique circumstances.
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