Indiana Living Will: What It Does, What It Doesn't, and How to Make One Legal

An Indiana living will is narrower than most people expect. It doesn't cover all medical decisions — it only governs end-of-life treatment when your attending physician certifies that you are terminally ill or have an incurable condition and death is imminent.

For everything else — choosing a hospital, consenting to surgery, managing rehab decisions — you need a separate healthcare representative appointment. Most Indiana residents need both documents, and confusing them is one of the most common estate planning mistakes.

What a Living Will Actually Controls

Under IC § 16-36-4, a living will declaration lets you accept or refuse specific life-prolonging procedures:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• Mechanical ventilation (breathing machines)
• Artificial nutrition and hydration (feeding tubes, IV fluids)

It only takes effect when two conditions are met: your attending physician certifies in writing that you have a terminal illness or incurable injury, and that death is imminent. If you're incapacitated but not terminally ill — say, after a serious car accident with a good prognosis — your living will doesn't activate.

This limitation is exactly why you also need a healthcare representative appointment to cover the gap.

Execution Requirements Under Indiana Law

Indiana's validation rules under IC § 16-36-7 are specific:

• Written, dated, and signed by you (or by someone signing in your presence and at your direction)
• Two competent adult witnesses or one notary public
• Witnesses must sign in your presence

Indiana enforces strict witness disqualifications for the living will:

• The person who signed on your behalf cannot witness
• Your spouse, parent, or child cannot serve as a witness
• Anyone named as a beneficiary of your estate is disqualified
• Anyone directly financially responsible for your medical care is disqualified

These restrictions are more aggressive than many states. The reasoning: Indiana wants to ensure no one with a financial interest in your death is validating your end-of-life wishes.

Living Will vs. Healthcare Representative: The Critical Difference

A healthcare representative can adapt to situations you never anticipated. A living will provides certainty about the specific treatments you do and don't want at the end of life. They work as a team.

Indiana's Default Decision-Maker Hierarchy

If you don't designate a healthcare representative, Indiana law creates a default hierarchy of who makes medical decisions for you:

1. Court-appointed guardian (if one exists)
2. Spouse
3. Parent
4. Adult child
5. Adult sibling

This default order causes problems in blended families, estranged relationships, and unmarried partnerships. An unmarried partner has no statutory authority to make medical decisions, regardless of how long you've been together.

POST Forms and DNR Orders: Beyond the Living Will

For individuals with advanced chronic illness or terminal conditions, Indiana offers two physician-driven tools that go further than a living will:

Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST — State Form 55317) translates your preferences into actionable medical orders covering CPR, level of medical intervention, antibiotics, and artificial nutrition. Unlike a living will, POST is a medical order that follows you across all care settings — hospitals, nursing homes, and EMS.

Out-of-Hospital DNR Order (State Form 49559) specifically directs EMS to withhold CPR if cardiac or pulmonary arrest occurs outside a hospital. This requires your attending physician's signature.

Neither POST nor DNR replaces your living will — they serve different legal and medical functions.

Making Your Living Will Part of a Complete Plan

A living will alone leaves gaps. Combined with a healthcare representative appointment, a durable financial power of attorney, and a last will and testament, it forms a complete Indiana estate plan that covers incapacity, end-of-life care, and asset distribution.

The Indiana Basic Estate Planning Kit walks through each document with the exact Indiana execution requirements, witness disqualification rules, and step-by-step instructions for making each document legally valid under current state law.

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