Free Georgia Advance Directive Template

Georgia folded the old living will and the durable power of attorney for health care into a single document called the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care. That change took effect on July 1, 2007, and neither older form remains available to new signers.

The Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services publishes the current form and its instructions at no cost.

Georgia keeps a Georgia advance directive deliberately easy to execute, and the witnessing rules show it.

Who Can Sign

Any person of sound mind who is 18 or older, or who is an emancipated minor, may sign.

Two Witnesses, With Unusual Flexibility

Both witnesses must be of sound mind and at least 18. However, they do not have to be together, and they do not have to watch you sign. Georgia accepts either arrangement: they see you sign, or you acknowledge your signature to them.

Who Cannot Witness

A witness cannot be:

• The health care agent or back-up agent named in Part One
• Anyone who will knowingly inherit from you or gain financially from your death
• Anyone directly involved in your health care

Only one of the two may be an employee, agent, or medical staff member of the facility where you are receiving care. That person still cannot be involved in your care directly.

Part Four Is Compulsory

You may fill in any or all of the first three parts. Part Four, covering effectiveness and signatures, becomes compulsory as soon as you complete any other part.

Marriage and Divorce Change Your Agent

A divorce or annulment revokes the selection of your current spouse as agent. Marrying later revokes your agent selection too, unless the person you chose is your new spouse.

No, and the form says so directly. The closing note in Part Four states that the document does not need to be notarized, and that a copy of a validly executed advance directive carries the same meaning and effect as the original.

That second half is just as useful as the first. Since a copy holds the same weight, you can give one to your agent, one to your physician, and keep one at home, without anyone hunting for a single original during an emergency.

Georgia also accepts other advance directive forms that substantially comply with its own, including forms drafted for other states.

Tip: Revoking is equally informal. You can complete a new directive, destroy the old one, write a statement revoking it, or say so out loud in front of a witness aged 18 or older who confirms it in writing within 30 days.

1. Print your name and date of birth at the top of the form.
2. In Part One, name your health care agent and any back-up agents, then set how much authority they hold after your death over autopsy, donation, and final disposition.
3. In Part Two, initial the conditions that trigger your treatment preferences, then choose option A, B, or C.
4. Add anything else in the optional statements box, including wishes about pain relief.
5. In Part Three, nominate a guardian if you want a court to have your preference on record.
6. Complete Part Four, sign, and have two qualified witnesses sign.
7. Share copies with your agent, your family, and your physician.

Create your Georgia advance directive now and have it ready before your next appointment.

Because Georgia prints its form in the statute, the four parts never change.

Part One: Health Care Agent

Your agent can admit or discharge you from a facility, request or refuse any type of health care, and contract for services on your behalf. They also act as your personal representative for medical records privacy, including under HIPAA. After your death, they can authorize an autopsy, handle organ or body donation, and direct burial or cremation, unless you limit those powers by initialing.

Some decisions stay off limits. Your agent cannot decide on psychosurgery, sterilization, or involuntary hospitalization or treatment for mental or emotional illness, developmental disability, or addictive disease.

Part Two: Treatment Preferences

This part applies only if you cannot communicate. First, you initial the conditions that trigger it: a terminal condition, a state of permanent unconsciousness, or both. Two physicians must certify your condition in writing after examining you.

Then you choose. Option A asks for every treatment that could keep you alive, while option B allows natural death. Between them sits option C, which lets you accept specific interventions such as tube nutrition, fluids, a ventilator, or CPR.

Part Two generally has no effect while you are pregnant, unless the fetus is not viable and you initial the line saying you still want it carried out.

Part Three: Guardianship

An optional nomination, which matters only if a court later decides you need a guardian. Your agent takes priority over your guardian on health care decisions unless a court says otherwise.