Free Oregon Living Will Form

The document lets you address decisions such as life-sustaining treatment, resuscitation, and tube feeding. Stating your wishes in writing removes the guesswork for your family and your medical team when a hard decision comes up. A properly signed advance directive gives your choices legal weight.

What Your Oregon Living Will Can Cover

An Oregon living will lets you set specific instructions for the medical care you want, or want to avoid, if you cannot speak for yourself. The state’s form asks you to initial your choice for each scenario it covers.

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• Artificial nutrition, such as tube feeding
• Mechanical ventilation and other life support
• Dialysis
• Blood transfusions
• Organ or tissue transplants
• Care in an end-stage or terminal condition

You also name a health care agent, and a substitute agent, to carry out these choices. They work with your attending physician if you become unable to decide for yourself.

Living Will vs. Last Will and Testament

A living will and a last will and testament serve different purposes. A living will, or advance directive, sets out your health care wishes and takes effect while you are alive but unable to communicate. A last will and testament distributes your property and names an executor after you die. Many people prepare both documents together as part of an overall plan.

Signing Requirements and Laws

Oregon’s advance directive law, set out in Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 127, tells you who can create a living will and how it must be signed. The advance directive is effective once the principal signs it and it is either witnessed by two adults or notarized.^[1.3]

Oregon law sets specific procedural requirements for a valid advance directive:

• The document must be signed by the declarant.^[1.3]
• Two adults must witness the signing.^[1.4]
• The document can be notarized instead of witnessed by two people.^[1.5]

In practice, witnesses and notaries typically confirm that the person signing appears to understand the document and is acting on their own, free of pressure from others.

Two more rules apply in specific situations. Oregon law says you must be an adult to sign your own advance directive. That means at least 18 years old, an emancipated minor, or a minor who is married.^[1.1]

If you are a patient in a long-term care facility when you sign, one of your two witnesses must be a person the facility designates who meets qualifications the Department of Human Services sets by rule.^[1.2]

The form described in subsection (1) of this section must be signed and: witnessed and signed by at least two adults; or notarized by a notary public.

Oregon Living Will Form Details

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Steps to Fill Out the Form

The Oregon living will form combines a health care directive with a medical power of attorney. You can fill out the downloaded PDF using FormsPal’s online PDF editor, or print it and complete it by hand. Follow the form’s own order below.

1. Complete the declaration. Enter the date, your name, and your address.
2. Initial your health care and end-of-life choices. Initial each line for CPR, nutrition, ventilation, dialysis, transfusions, transplants, and end-stage or terminal condition care that reflects your wishes.
3. Add Additional Instructions. This section is optional. Write any further wishes on the blank lines if you have them.
4. Appoint your health care agent. Enter your agent’s name, address, and phone number.
5. Name a substitute agent. Enter the substitute agent’s name, address, and phone number in case your first choice cannot serve.
6. Review the powers you grant your agent. Read items A through J, which describe the authority your agent will have.
7. Review when the document takes effect and the HIPAA release. These sections explain how your incapacity triggers the document and authorize your agent to see your medical records.
8. Review the remaining provisions. These pages describe your agent’s standard of care, how a court can ratify their actions, and who to nominate as conservator if one is ever needed. You do not need to fill in anything here, but read it so you understand the authority you are granting.
9. Review photocopies, prior revocations, and severability. These provisions explain that photocopies work like the original, how signing this document affects any earlier advance directive, and what happens if a court finds one part invalid. No entries are required here either.
10. Review governing law and revocation. These closing provisions explain that Oregon law governs the document and how you can revoke it.
11. Sign and date before two witnesses. Sign, print your name, and date the form in front of your witnesses.
12. Complete the Witness Acknowledgment. Each witness prints their name and address, then signs and dates the form.

After You Sign Your Living Will

Once your Oregon living will is signed and witnessed or notarized, keep the original somewhere your family can find it. Give copies to the people who will need to act on it.

• Keep the signed original in a safe, accessible place, not a locked box only you can open.
• Give a copy to your health care agent and your substitute agent.
• Give a copy to your primary care physician for your medical file.
• Bring a copy with you if you are admitted to a hospital or care facility.
• Review your advance directive from time to time, and sign a new one if your wishes change.

Other Oregon Forms
Below are various other Oregon templates completed by our users. Try our simple builder to customize these forms to your preferences.

Oregon Last Will Oregon Small Estate Affidavit Oregon Bill of Sale Oregon Power of Attorney Oregon Rental Lease Agreement Oregon Eviction Notice Oregon Promissory Note Oregon Non-compete Agreement Oregon Prenuptial Agreement Oregon LLC Operating Agreement Oregon Marital Settlement (Divorce) Agreement

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Should Consider a Living Will?

Adults of any age can benefit from having a living will on file, not only older adults. You may want to sign one before a scheduled surgery, after a serious diagnosis, or simply to have your wishes on record before a medical emergency happens.

Anyone who wants a say in their own health care, rather than leaving the decision entirely to family members or a court, is a good candidate for this document.

How to Make a Living Will in Oregon?

To make a living will in Oregon, you sign the advance directive yourself, in front of your witnesses or a notary. You then have it witnessed by two adults, or notarized instead, to make it legally effective.^[1.3]

If you live in a long-term care facility when you sign, one of your two witnesses must be a person the facility designates who meets qualifications the Department of Human Services sets by rule.^[1.2] Once signed and witnessed or notarized, the document is legally effective.

General information, not legal or tax advice.

Sources

1. Or. Rev. Stat. 127.505(1) §§ Or. Rev. Stat. 127.505(1) to 127.529.
   • 1.1 Or. Rev. Stat. 127.505(1)
   • 1.2 ORS 127.515(5) (directive validated by witnesses under ORS 127.515(2)(a); principal a patient in a long term care facility)
   • 1.3 § 127.510
   • 1.4 § 127.515
   • 1.5 § 127.529

Mara Erlach

Writer & Attorney

Mara has been practicing estate planning and trust law in California since 2003, taking pride in helping clients of all backgrounds and asset profiles form a complete and customized estate plan. Her specialties are: estate planning, wills and trusts, trust and probate administration.