Creating a Valid Living Will in Minnesota

Your general estate plan explains how your wealth and possessions should be distributed when you pass away.

However, your living will can prove critical at any moment during your life when you become seriously injured in a traffic accident — or must start receiving potentially toxic or life-threatening treatments for cancer or other serious illnesses.

When Minnesota residents fail to provide their loved ones or doctors with living wills containing medical guidance about acceptable forms of treatment, they may find themselves at the mercy of unknown parties choosing between various types of aggressive or palliative care. Since no one wants to suffer unnecessarily, it’s critical to ask your Minnesota estate planning attorney to prepare a living will (sometimes referred to as an “advanced healthcare directive”) for you without delay.

The Mayo Clinic’s Definition of a Living Will

Your living will provides “legal instructions regarding your preferences for medical care if you are unable to make decisions for yourself.” This type of advance directive can specifically exclude treatments you don’t want your caregivers or doctors to even consider – such as leaving you on life support long after there’s any reasonable chance of a full recovery following extensive brain damage.

Now that so many more Americans are living into their late 80s and 90s, it’s imperative to let people know how you personally define “quality of life.” Your living will even lets you indicate how you prefer to be treated during the various stages of dementia. Likewise, if you’ve naturally fallen into a coma or had this status induced to medically protect you, it’s critical for you to already have a properly executed living will that tells others know exactly how long you might be willing to remain in that condition.

Minnesota Statutes Governing Livings Wills and Advanced Directives

Chapter 145 of the Minnesota Statutes, entitled “Public Health” includes the “Living Will” statute, Title 145B.  As your Minnesota estate planning attorney will tell you, our state provides specific requirements for a valid living will. For example, it must be duly signed by the declarant (you – the party asking to have it created), along with two witnesses or a notary public.

Your living will must also state your preferences regarding the administration of nutrition and hydration – or whether or not you’d prefer to have a proxy (such as your spouse or other legal caregiver) make such decisions for you. Please be aware that simply naming a proxy does not create a legal presumption that you want artificially administered nutrition or hydration to be administered or withheld. That specific information much be clearly indicated in your living will.

Minnesota’s statutes further provide that your living will can be “communicated to and then transcribed by one of the witnesses” to its creation. If you are unable to sign it, one of your witnesses can sign the document “at [your] direction.” Should you have any other questions about what should be addressed in your living will, your attorney will be able to answer all of them for you.

After obtaining their own living wills, most people are pleased with the added peace of mind they have gained. When you think about it, everyone should have one, especially given the dangers we all face each day when we venture out onto the streets as pedestrians – or as vehicle drivers and passengers.

Experienced Minnesota Estate Planning Lawyer

An experienced Minnesota Wills & Trusts lawyer can help walk you through the complicated process of establishing a workable estate plan. For more information on estate planning in Minnesota, along with a variety of other topics, contact Joseph M. Flanders of Flanders Law Firm at (612) 424-0398.