Pennsylvania Living Wills Laws

An estate plan addresses how your property will be distributed after your death. It can also allow you to choose who’ll make important medical decisions for you if you can’t do it yourself. Incapacity planning is an essential part of an estate plan. With an advance directive, you can control how your healthcare decisions are made if you become incapacitated.

In Pennsylvania, an advance health care directive often includes a living will, a healthcare power of attorney, or both. Your living will is a legal document that expresses how you want your health care managed, such as life-sustaining treatments and end-of-life care. With a healthcare power of attorney, you appoint a trusted person, known as your healthcare agent, to make important health decisions on your behalf if you’re incapacitated.

Together, these important legal documents can ensure that your medical decisions are made the way you’d want them made at a time when you can’t communicate your healthcare wishes. They should be a part of any estate plan you create.

Pennsylvania’s Advance Healthcare Directive

No one likes to think of themselves in a persistent vegetative state, on life support, or in a nursing home, but an accident can change everything in an instant. Serious illness can outlast and outpace medical treatment options. Creating your advance healthcare directive now can give you a say in how you’re cared for if you become incapacitated in the future.

Living Will

A living will is a legal document stating your wishes about life-sustaining medical treatment. It takes effect when you’re unable to make and communicate your own healthcare wishes, such as if you’re either permanently unconscious or have an end-stage medical condition.

In a Pennsylvania living will, you can provide instructions about treatments such as artificial nutrition and hydration (tube feeding and IVs), mechanical ventilation (breathing machine), dialysis, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and other life-sustaining treatments. By documenting your preferences, a living will helps ensure that your medical care aligns with your values and spares your loved ones the burden of guessing what you’d want.

Durable Healthcare Power of Attorney

While your living will addresses how you want your healthcare decisions made, the durable healthcare power of attorney designates who will be your healthcare decision maker. The benefits of appointing a healthcare agent include:

• Control: You’ve decided who will manage your healthcare decisions. This is important if your wishes don’t follow the statutory priority set out below.
• Adaptability: A healthcare agent can assess and direct your medical care. This includes new treatment options or unexpected circumstances, making real-time decisions that align with their understanding of your wishes.
• Faster decision-making: With a valid health care power of attorney in place, doctors and hospitals know who is authorized to make your healthcare decisions. This can help prevent delays in obtaining consent for treatment.
• Reduced family conflict: Serious illness put a great deal of stress on your family members. By designating your decision maker, you can potentially reduce disagreements about your medical treatment decisions.

A healthcare agent’s authority is limited to healthcare decisions. To appoint an agent to handle your financial and legal matters during an incapacity, you’ll need a durable power of attorney.

Key Requirements

The key requirements for creating a living will and for creating a healthcare power of attorney in Pennsylvania are largely the same. These include:

• Principal Requirements: The principal is of sound mind, at least 18 years old or a high school graduate, married, or an emancipated minor
• Document Requirements: The principal must either sign and date the living will themselves or direct someone to do it on their behalf and in their presence. Healthcare providers and their agents providing services to the principal cannot sign on the principal’s behalf.
• Witness Requirements: The principal’s signature must be witnessed by two people aged 18 or older. If someone signs the living will for the principal, they cannot serve as a witness.

Pennsylvania law does not specifically prohibit an agent from serving as a witness to the healthcare power of attorney. In addition, the legal documents are not required to be notarized. Still, using only disinterested witnesses, rather than the agent named in the health care power of attorney, may reduce the likelihood of future challenges. The same is true if you use a notary in the execution process.

What Happens if You Become Incapacitated Without an Advance Directive?

If you become incapacitated without an advance health care directive, you’ve given up the opportunity to express your personal wishes and to determine who makes your healthcare decisions. Without a healthcare durable power of attorney, Pennsylvania law determines who may serve as your healthcare representative. Authority passes to available family members in a statutory order of priority that begins with your spouse, then your adult children, then your parents, followed by other relatives, and, eventually, non-relatives.

This outcome may work well for some people, but issues may arise if:

• You’re not married and have no close relatives
• Your family members disagree with the healthcare representative’s treatment decisions
• You haven’t provided a living will for guidance

Family members and loved ones already dealing with the upset and stress of the serious medical condition causing your incapacity will likely appreciate that your wishes are clearly spelled out in a legal document. Incapacity planning is one of the most generous things you can do for the people who matter most in your life. Advance health care directives are not just for older adults. Serious illness or injury can occur at any age, so it’s a good idea to take care of it sooner rather than later.

How To Create an Advance Directive in Pennsylvania

If you’re interested in doing your own incapacity planning, there are several resources to help. Pennsylvania does not require you to use an attorney to create your advance directive and provides a statutory form you can use to get started. Another option is to use a do-it-yourself,  state-specific online form, which may offer a little more flexibility for customization.

No matter how you choose to create your advance directive, getting started is the key. Articles like How To Do a Living Will By Yourself can help you prepare and take the first step.

Consult a Professional

For a fully customized experience, consider working with an estate planning or elder law attorney. An attorney can guide you through the important decision-making process, ensure your advance directive complies with Pennsylvania law, and review your incapacity plan as it relates to the rest of your estate plan. If you’d like the extra peace of mind that comes from working with a professional, find a Pennsylvania estate planning attorney near you to get started.