Living Will Victoria: What It's Called, How It Works, and How to Make One

Victoria Doesn't Have "Living Wills" — It Has Something Stronger

If you're searching for a living will template in Victoria, you're looking for the right thing under the wrong name. Victoria's legal equivalent is the advance care directive (ACD), and it's significantly more powerful than a traditional living will.

A living will, as the term is commonly understood internationally, is a non-binding document that expresses your wishes about end-of-life medical care. It carries moral weight — doctors should consider it — but they're not legally required to follow it.

Victoria's advance care directive, created under the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016, is legally binding on health practitioners. When a valid ACD contains an instructional directive refusing a specific treatment, the treating doctor must comply. Family members cannot override it. The clinical team cannot substitute their own judgement. That's a fundamental difference from what most people understand a "living will" to be.

Why the Terminology Matters

The distinction between a "living will" and a Victorian ACD isn't semantic. It has practical consequences:

Legal enforcement. A living will is aspirational. A Victorian ACD with instructional directives is enforceable. If a clinician ignores a valid instructional directive, they're breaching their statutory obligations under the 2016 Act.

Hospital recognition. Victorian hospitals train their staff on the 2016 Act framework. Documents labelled "living will" can cause confusion — clinical teams may treat them as informal preference statements rather than binding legal instruments.

Interstate and international compatibility. If you've moved to Victoria from another state or country and have a living will, it won't have the same standing as a Victorian ACD. The safest approach is to execute a fresh directive under Victorian law, which gives you the strongest protection available in Australia.

What You Can Include

A Victorian ACD can contain two types of content:

Instructional directives are specific, binding clinical orders. Examples: "I refuse cardiopulmonary resuscitation," "I consent to a trial of mechanical ventilation for no longer than 72 hours," or "I consent to medical interventions necessary to facilitate organ donation." These are treated as if you were making the decision with full capacity in real time.

Values directives describe what matters to you — independence, cognitive function, connection with family, staying in your own home — and what outcomes you would find unacceptable. These guide your Medical Treatment Decision Maker in situations your instructional directives don't cover. They're not binding in the same way, but they carry significant weight in clinical decision-making.

The most effective ACDs include both types. Instructional directives handle the scenarios you can anticipate. Values directives give your decision-maker a framework for everything else.

How to Create One

The statutory form is available as a free download from the Victorian Department of Health. The process:

1. Download the form from health.vic.gov.au/advance-care-planning/forms.
2. Discuss your values and treatment preferences with your GP. This conversation helps translate personal wishes into precise clinical language.
3. Complete the form, including both instructional and values directives.
4. Sign the form with two witnesses physically present. One witness must be a registered medical practitioner (a doctor). Neither can be your appointed Medical Treatment Decision Maker. Remote or video witnessing is not permitted for ACDs.
5. Distribute certified copies to your GP, your local hospital, your MTDM, and your My Health Record.

The Separate Documents You Also Need

An ACD records your medical treatment instructions, but it doesn't appoint anyone to make decisions on your behalf. For that, you need a separate Medical Treatment Decision Maker (MTDM) appointment — also under the 2016 Act.

And for financial and personal matters (bank accounts, property, where you live), you need an Enduring Power of Attorney under the Powers of Attorney Act 2014. An EPOA attorney has no authority over medical treatment decisions whatsoever — that's a strict legal separation in Victoria.

Most Victorians need all three documents for complete protection.

Making It Binding and Effective

The gap between a document that expresses wishes and one that's legally enforceable comes down to execution: precise clinical language, correct witnessing, and proper distribution. The Victoria Advance Directive & Living Will Kit provides clinician-approved phrasing templates and a step-by-step signing process designed specifically for the 2016 Act's strict requirements.

See more Victoria guides →