Indiana Advance Directive Form: How to Fill Out and File Your 2026 Document

Most people assume filling out an Indiana advance directive is as simple as downloading a PDF and signing it. That assumption is exactly how documents get invalidated — wrong witnesses, outdated pre-2023 forms, missing execution steps that void the entire thing.

Since Senate Enrolled Act 204 took full effect on January 1, 2023, Indiana no longer uses the old fragmented system of separate healthcare power of attorney and living will documents. Everything now falls under a single unified advance directive governed by Indiana Code Title 16, Article 36. Understanding the current requirements is the difference between a legally binding document and a worthless piece of paper.

What an Indiana Advance Directive Actually Covers

Under the modern SEA 204 framework, your advance directive handles three things in one document:

• Health Care Representative (HCR) appointment — naming the person who makes medical decisions if you cannot
• Living will declaration — your specific wishes about life-sustaining treatment
• Treatment preferences — detailed instructions on CPR, ventilation, feeding tubes, and other interventions

Indiana no longer mandates any specific statutory form language. You can write your wishes on any written or electronic medium, as long as execution requirements are met.

Requirements for a Valid Indiana Advance Directive

To be legally enforceable, your document must satisfy these conditions:

1. You must be at least 18 years old (or an emancipated minor) with decisional capacity
2. The document must be written, dated, and signed by you
3. Your signature must be validated by either a notary public OR two competent adult witnesses
4. If using witnesses, your appointed HCR cannot serve as a witness
5. At least one witness must be unrelated to you by blood, marriage, or adoption

The witness rules become stricter if your directive includes a living will section about withdrawing life support. In that case, neither witness can be your spouse, parent, child, HCR, potential heir, or anyone financially responsible for your medical care.

How to Fill Out the Form Step by Step

Start with your personal information — full legal name, date of birth, and address. Then work through each section:

Section 1: Health Care Representative. Name your primary HCR with their full legal name, phone number, and relationship. Name at least one backup representative in case your primary is unavailable. Specify whether their authority activates immediately or only after a physician certifies your incapacity.

Section 2: Living Will Declaration. Choose one of two positions — either you want life-prolonging procedures withheld if you have a terminal condition, or you want all available medical interventions used. You cannot leave this ambiguous.

Section 3: Specific Treatment Preferences. Address CPR, mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and hydration, dialysis, and antibiotics individually. The more specific you are, the less room for hospital staff to guess.

Section 4: Execution. Date and sign the document in front of your chosen witnesses or notary. If executing remotely via video call, ensure all counterpart pages are compiled into a single composite document within 10 business days.

Common Mistakes That Invalidate the Form

The most frequent error is using a pre-2023 form that still separates healthcare power of attorney from the living will. General durable powers of attorney executed after December 31, 2022 cannot legally grant healthcare authority using old statutory language — those clauses are void.

Other common problems include having your HCR serve as a witness, using two witnesses who are both related to you, and failing to address the pregnancy exception (any living will declaration is legally inoperable during pregnancy unless you explicitly authorize your HCR to act).

Getting the form right the first time matters — a flawed document leaves your family scrambling through Indiana's default consent hierarchy, where decisions fall to majority votes among relatives.

The Indiana Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through every section with plain-language instructions, built-in witness eligibility checklists, and execution guides updated for the current SEA 204 standard.

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