In Washington, a living will form is a part of the Advance Directive, which allows adult residents to outline their end-of-life and life-sustaining wishes when they become incapable of formulating and expressing their treatment choices themselves.
The Washington Living Will, as a rule, is attached to the Medical Power of Attorney form, where the declarant is to select a trusted person to deal with medical decisions on the principal’s behalf. Both forms come into force when the principal is no longer capable of making conscious decisions relating to medical care and clearly expressing their wishes.
According to RCW 70.122.030, only those residents who have come into the age of majority can and can comprehend every issue the document covers can create a Washington Living Will.
The document must be signed by the declarants themselves. At the moment of signing the paper, they are to be of sound mind and able to take a serious approach to making a choice of such nature. If the principle cannot execute the form themselves, they are to appoint a representative to sign the document on the declarant’s behalf.
As RCW 70.122.030 states, two people must be present while completing the living will. Besides that, they are to provide their signatures to make the form legal.
It is crucial to meet the following requirements regarding the selection of witnesses:
As the law also maintains, after signing the document, you should have your form distributed to your physician, trusted relatives, and close friends. Besides the original version, all copies and updated versions of the document must be notarized. Another requirement is that the living will should be made a part of your medical records.
According to RCW 7.70.065, if the wishes and instructions expressed in the living will violate the physician’s principle, and they refuse to support the requests, they must inform the patient about it. The patient is allowed to decide whether to take the physician’s commentary into account or not.
| Document Name | Washington Living Will Form |
| State Form Name | Washington Health Care Directive |
| Signing Requirements | Two Witnesses or Notary Public |
| Validity Requirements | Section 70.122.030(1) |
| Specific Powers | Section 70.122.020(5) |
| Avg. Time to Fill Out | 13 minutes |
| # of Fillable Fields | 48 |
| Available Formats | Adobe PDF; Microsoft Word |
| State Laws: Washington Revised Code, Sections 70.122.010 to 70.122.925 | |
If you want to complete the Washington Living Will form quickly without any problems, read the following comprehensive step-by-step instruction:
1. Download the Living Will Form
To complete the form, you can download it in a PDF format or open it in your browser and proceed to fill it out. You can use our convenient Online Forms Building Software to fill out the Living Will form. You are welcome to fill out the form online: insert the necessary information directly on the website without downloading the form and then either print it or send it via email.
2. Input Your Name in the Document
Write your full name if you want to express your desires concerning life-sustaining and end-of-life treatment and if you fully accept all the consequences of your refusal to get any medical help in case of incapacitation or irrevocable unconscious condition. You agree to every directive that is specified below.
3. Leave Life-Sustaining Directives
The Washington Living Will allows you to give healthcare instructions that come into force when you are diagnosed to be in a permanent, incurable condition because of brain damage or incapacity of another nature by two qualified physicians. If there is no hope for improvement even though you are kept alive artificially be nutrition or respiratory machine or get medical aid in the form of blood transfusion, medication, surgery, or any other health care treatment, you can choose not to prolong your life and specify what kind of medical treatment you refuse to.
4. Read the Given Instructions Carefully
In the next several sections of the document, you need to read the information covering the following issues:
5. Give Instructions Regarding the Validity of the Document In Case You Are Pregnant
Unlike in many other states in which pregnancy is a condition under which the form has no force, in Washington, you can choose whether you want the document to remain in effect when you become pregnant or lose its force during the pregnancy period.
6. Add Other Instructions and Wishes
If you want to add some directives to the instructions above, you may indicate it and write your own instructions in the “Additional Directives” section.
7. Provide Signatures
The document must be signed by the declarant and two competent witnesses and recognized by a notary public. If the principal has become incapable of signing themselves, the form is to be signed by the declarant’s representative. It is mandatory to input the witnesses’ names and contact information.
