How to Revoke or Change an Advance Directive in Arizona

Your Right to Revoke at Any Time

Arizona law is clear: you can change or revoke any advance directive at any time, as long as you have decision-making capacity. There is no waiting period, no minimum duration, and no requirement that you notify the person you originally named as agent before revoking their authority.

This applies to all three documents — Healthcare POA, Living Will, and Mental Health POA — and to Prehospital DNR orders. Your right to self-determination persists for as long as you are competent to exercise it.

Methods of Revocation

Arizona recognizes several ways to revoke an advance directive:

Written revocation. Execute a signed, dated statement that you revoke the specific document. This is the cleanest method and creates an unambiguous paper trail.

Physical destruction. Tear up, burn, or otherwise destroy the original document with the intent to revoke it. The challenge: if copies exist with your physician, your agent, or in the AzHDR registry, destruction of one copy may not effectively communicate your revocation to everyone who holds a version.

Oral revocation. You can verbally revoke a directive in the presence of a witness. However, oral revocations are the most vulnerable to disputes — especially if a family member later claims you were confused or did not mean it.

Executing a new document. The simplest and safest approach. Execute a new Healthcare POA, Living Will, or Mental Health POA that supersedes the old one. The newer document controls. This method simultaneously revokes the old directive and establishes new instructions.

Updating the Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry

Revocation is not complete until the AzHDR reflects your current documents. If your old directive is still registered with Contexture, hospitals accessing the registry will see and follow the outdated version — they have no way to know you revoked it at home.

To update the registry:

1. Execute your new documents with proper witness or notary formalities
2. Complete a new AzHDR Consumer Registration Agreement
3. Check the box indicating you are replacing or revoking an existing document
4. Submit the new registration to Contexture

The registry software automatically identifies the most recently dated version as active and supersedes older entries. Do not assume that destroying your copy at home is sufficient — update the registry.

Notifying Your Agent and Providers

After revocation, notify:

• Your previously designated agent (if you are removing or replacing them)
• Your new agent (if you are designating someone different)
• Your primary care physician
• Any specialists who have copies on file
• The facility where you reside (if applicable)

If you are changing agents because of a relationship breakdown — divorce, family conflict, loss of trust — you especially do not want the old agent showing up at a hospital and claiming authority under a document you already revoked.

When to Update Your Directives

Review and potentially update after any of these life changes:

• Divorce or separation — your ex-spouse should almost certainly be removed as agent
• Death of your designated agent — your alternate agent is now primary; you may want a new alternate
• New medical diagnosis — your treatment preferences may change based on your prognosis
• Relocation to Arizona — execute Arizona-specific documents to supplement or replace out-of-state forms
• Change in values or preferences — what you wanted at 50 may not reflect what you want at 75
• Birth of a child or grandchild — potential new agent candidates or changed family dynamics

Even without a triggering event, review every two to three years to confirm your documents still reflect your current wishes and circumstances.

Partial Changes

You do not need to revoke everything to make one change. If you want to keep your treatment preferences but change your agent, execute a new Healthcare POA (which supersedes the old one) and leave your Living Will intact. Each document operates independently in Arizona's system.

Similarly, if you want to add inpatient admission authority to your Mental Health POA (the initialing you missed the first time), you must execute an entirely new Mental Health POA — you cannot simply add initials to the existing document after the fact.

The Practical Workflow

The Arizona Advance Directive & Living Will Kit provides a revision workflow: a checklist for determining which documents need updating, execution instructions for the replacement documents, and step-by-step AzHDR re-registration guidance to ensure the registry always reflects your current wishes.

See more Arizona guides →