Living Will in Kansas: Requirements, Forms, and What the Natural Death Act Actually Covers

Most people assume a living will handles every end-of-life scenario. In Kansas, it doesn't come close. The Kansas Natural Death Act (K.S.A. 65-28,103) authorizes living will declarations — but the statute limits their reach to a narrow clinical window that leaves major gaps in your protection.

Here's what a Kansas living will actually does, what it doesn't cover, and what you need alongside it.

What a Kansas Living Will Legally Does

A Kansas living will is a written declaration that directs physicians to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures when two conditions are simultaneously met:

1. Two independent physicians (one must be the attending physician) certify you have a terminal condition — an incurable injury, disease, or illness.
2. Those physicians determine that death is imminent regardless of whether life-sustaining procedures continue.

Life-sustaining procedures include mechanical ventilation, artificially supplied nutrition and hydration, and other interventions that only prolong the dying process.

The key word is imminent. If death isn't expected in the near term, the living will has no legal effect — even if your quality of life has deteriorated severely.

Execution Requirements: Witnesses vs. Notary

Kansas gives you two options to make a living will legally binding — you need one or the other, not both:

Option A: Two qualified witnesses. Both must be adults (18+) and neither can be:

• Related to you by blood or marriage
• Entitled to any part of your estate
• Financially responsible for your medical care
• The person who signed the document on your behalf

Option B: Notarization. Have your signature acknowledged before a Kansas notary public. This is the simpler route if finding two qualifying non-family witnesses is difficult — and it strengthens portability if you travel to states like Missouri that require notarized healthcare documents.

You must be at least 18 (or an emancipated minor) and of sound mind when you sign.

The Pregnancy Clause

Under current Kansas statute, a living will declaration has no legal effect during pregnancy if the attending physician has diagnosed the pregnancy. This means life-sustaining procedures cannot be withdrawn from a pregnant declarant based on the living will alone, regardless of her documented wishes.

This provision is among the most contested in Kansas healthcare law, and legal challenges are ongoing. But until the statute changes, it remains binding.

The Dementia Gap: What the Living Will Doesn't Cover

This is the single biggest misconception about Kansas living wills. Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and persistent vegetative states are not classified as terminal conditions under the Natural Death Act. A standard living will provides zero protection in these scenarios.

If you develop advanced dementia without a separate terminal diagnosis, hospitals are not legally authorized to honor your living will's instructions to stop feeding tubes or ventilators. Your family will be left without a binding directive — and Kansas has no default surrogate law that gives them automatic authority to make decisions.

The fix is pairing your living will with a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPOA-HC) that includes specific dementia provisions. The DPOA-HC appoints a healthcare agent who can make treatment decisions when you're incapacitated, including in non-terminal situations the living will can't reach.

Why a Living Will Alone Isn't Enough in Kansas

Kansas is one of the minority of states with no statutory default surrogate hierarchy for medical decisions. HB 2720, which would have created one, died in committee in April 2026. Without a DPOA-HC, no family member — not your spouse, not your adult children — has automatic legal authority to make healthcare decisions for you.

If you only have a living will and become incapacitated from a non-terminal condition, your family faces a court guardianship proceeding to gain decision-making authority. That process is slow, public, adversarial, and expensive.

A complete Kansas advance directive combines both documents:

• Living will — handles the narrow terminal-condition scenario
• DPOA-HC — handles everything else, including dementia, surgical emergencies, and routine medical decisions during incapacity

The Kansas Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks you through both documents with Kansas-specific witness validation checklists and the custom dementia language the statutory forms don't include.

How to Revoke a Kansas Living Will

You can revoke your living will at any time while you have capacity, through any of these methods:

• Written revocation executed with the same formality as the original (witnessed or notarized)
• Physical destruction of the document (tearing, burning, obliterating)
• Executing a new directive that explicitly revokes all prior declarations
• Verbal revocation in the presence of an adult witness — but the witness must sign a written statement confirming your intent, and that statement must be delivered to your attending physician for notation in your medical record

The verbal revocation rule catches many people off guard. Simply telling your doctor "I changed my mind" isn't enough. The witness documentation and physician notification chain must be completed, or the original living will remains in effect.

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