How to Revoke an Advance Directive in Utah

You signed your advance directive three years ago naming your spouse as healthcare agent. Now you are going through a divorce. Does the old directive still apply? Can your soon-to-be-ex make your medical decisions?

Utah law provides clear answers. Revoking or updating an advance directive is straightforward, and in one specific situation — divorce — the law handles it automatically.

Three Ways to Revoke Your Advance Directive

Under the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act (Utah Code Title 75A, Chapter 9), you can revoke your advance directive at any time using any of these methods:

1. Execute a New Advance Directive

The simplest approach. Sign a new advance directive with updated instructions and agent designations. The new document automatically supersedes the old one. You do not need to formally cancel or destroy the previous version — though doing so reduces confusion.

Make sure the new directive is properly witnessed (one adult witness required, no notary) and distribute copies to your healthcare agent, alternate agent, primary care physician, and hospital portal.

2. Verbal Revocation

You can revoke your advance directive by verbally communicating your intent to revoke it in the presence of a witness.

Verbal revocation is effective immediately. Make sure the revocation is communicated to your healthcare providers so their records can be updated.

This method works in emergencies — if you are conscious and capable of communicating, you can override your own directive at any time.

3. Written Revocation

You can write and sign a statement revoking your advance directive. Deliver the written notice to your healthcare provider.

A written revocation does not need to follow any statutory form. A clear, signed statement like "I revoke my advance health care directive dated [date]" is sufficient.

Divorce and Your Healthcare Proxy

Unless your directive provides otherwise, Utah law revokes a spouse's appointment as your healthcare agent upon divorce, dissolution, legal separation, or a termination petition or decree. You do not need to take separate legal action to remove the spouse's appointment.

However, the rest of your advance directive — your living will instructions, treatment preferences, and any alternate agent designation — remains valid. Only the ex-spouse's agent authority is revoked.

What to do after divorce:

• Execute a new advance directive naming a different healthcare agent
• Update your treatment preferences if your values have changed
• Distribute the new document to your medical providers and hospital portals
• Retrieve or destroy copies of the old directive from your ex-spouse

If you named your ex-spouse as your only agent with no alternate, and you become incapacitated before executing a new directive, the default surrogate hierarchy kicks in. Under Utah Code § 75A-9-111, it begins with an adult identified outside a health care power of attorney, followed by a spouse, an adult child or parent, a cohabitant, an adult sibling, an adult grandchild or grandparent, and other qualifying adults. If people in the same priority class disagree, the provider generally follows the majority; if the class remains evenly divided, other Utah law governs.

Partial Revocation

You can revoke specific parts of your advance directive without canceling the entire document. For example, you might want to change your treatment preferences while keeping the same healthcare agent, or vice versa.

The cleanest approach is to execute an entirely new directive with all current preferences. Partial amendments create ambiguity that can cause problems during a medical crisis when providers need clear, uncontested instructions.

When Revocation Takes Effect

Revocation is effective immediately when communicated. The practical challenge is ensuring everyone has the updated information:

• Your healthcare agent and alternate must know the old directive is revoked
• Your primary care physician's office needs the update in your chart
• Hospital portals (Intermountain MyChart, University of Utah Health) should have the new document uploaded
• Any copies filed with care facilities, attorney offices, or family members should be replaced

A revoked directive that is still on file at a hospital can create dangerous confusion. When you revoke or update, chase down every copy.

The Utah Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a distribution tracking worksheet and post-signing checklist to ensure your current directive — not an outdated one — is the document your providers follow.

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