Free Washington DC Advance Directive Template

In Washington DC, advance directive is an umbrella term covering two separate legal documents rather than one combined form.

The durable power of attorney for health care sits at DC Code Section 21-2205, and it names the person who decides for you. Your living will declaration sits at Section 7-622, and it states your wishes about life-sustaining procedures. So a Washington DC advance directive is really a pair of documents, and you can sign one, the other, or both.

A Washington DC advance directive carries two sets of execution rules, so read them separately.

Required Wording in the Power of Attorney

Section 21-2205 asks for language that clearly communicates you intend your attorney in fact to make health care decisions for you. It also asks for wording identical or substantially similar to one of two sentences:

• This power of attorney shall not be affected by the subsequent incapacity of the principal.
• This power of attorney becomes effective upon the incapacity of the principal.

Miss that sentence and the document may not do what you meant it to.

Signing the Power of Attorney

You and two adult witnesses date and sign the document, and those witnesses affirm you were of sound mind and free from duress at the time. They cannot include you, your health care provider, or an employee of your health care provider.

At least one of the two must also be someone not related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, and not entitled to any part of your estate under a current will or by operation of law.

Section 21-2207 prints a sample form, and any written form meeting the Section 21-2205 requirements may be used instead.

Signing the Living Will Declaration

Any person aged 18 or older may execute a declaration directing that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn in a terminal condition. It must be in writing and signed by you, or by another person in your presence at your express direction.

Two witnesses sign, and Section 7-622 rules out far more people here. A witness cannot be the person who signed for you, a relative by blood, marriage, or domestic partnership, anyone entitled to a portion of your estate under DC intestate succession or under your will, anyone directly financially responsible for your medical care, or your attending physician, an employee of that physician, or an employee of the health facility where you are a patient.

Telling Your Doctor Is Your Job

Section 7-622 puts the responsibility on you to notify your attending physician that a declaration exists. Once presented with it, the physician makes the declaration, or a copy, part of your medical records.

No, and the gap between them is easy to trip over.

For the power of attorney, neither witness may be your health care provider or their employee. Only one of the two must fall outside your family and your estate, so a relative can serve as the second witness.

For the living will declaration, every witness has to clear the full list. Each one needs no blood, marriage, or domestic partnership tie to you, must not stand to inherit, must not carry financial responsibility for your care, and must not be your attending physician or an employee of the facility treating you.

So a relative who can validly witness your power of attorney cannot witness your declaration. The simplest fix is to pick two witnesses who satisfy the stricter list, then use the same pair for both documents in one sitting.

Tip: Signing both documents together also keeps the dates aligned. Mismatched dates invite questions later about which document you intended to control.

1. Decide whether you want the power of attorney, the declaration, or both.
2. Choose your attorney in fact, and confirm they are willing to act.
3. Check that the power of attorney carries the required durability wording.
4. Complete the declaration if you want your wishes on life-sustaining procedures in writing.
5. Pick two witnesses who clear the stricter declaration list, so the same pair covers both forms.
6. Sign and date both documents in front of those witnesses.
7. Give a copy to your attending physician, and keep copies with your attorney in fact and your family.

Create your Washington DC advance directive now and download it in PDF or Word.

The sample power of attorney in Section 21-2207 opens with a notice in capital letters, which is worth reading rather than skipping.

It tells you that the document gives the person you name the power to make health care decisions if you cannot. The same notice confirms that after signing, you keep the right to make your own decisions while mentally competent, and that nobody may start or stop treatment over your objection while you remain competent to decide.

Below that, the body names your attorney in fact and grants them authority to give, refuse, or withdraw consent to any health care service, treatment, or procedure. They can also speak to health care personnel, obtain information, and sign the forms needed to carry your decisions through. A statement of directives about life-prolonging care follows, where you set limits in your own words.

The Section 7-622 declaration is narrower and shorter. It records that if you are in a terminal condition and cannot give directions yourself, the declaration stands as the final expression of your legal right to refuse treatment, and to accept the consequences.