Wyoming Living Will: Requirements, What It Can Say, and How It Fits the State Form

Search for a "Wyoming living will form" and you'll find something confusing: Wyoming doesn't issue a standalone living will at all. Instead, your living will is Part 2 — "Instructions for Health Care" — of the state's combined Advance Health Care Directive, created under the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act (W.S. § 35-22-401 et seq.). That's actually good news: one document, one signing session, and your treatment instructions travel with the power of attorney that appoints the person who enforces them.

Here's what Wyoming law requires for a valid living will, what it can and can't do, and the revocation rules most people get wrong.

Who Can Make One and What Makes It Valid

Any competent adult (18 or older, or an emancipated minor) can execute healthcare instructions in Wyoming. The execution requirements under W.S. § 35-22-403:

• The instructions must be in writing, dated, and signed while you have mental capacity. This matters enormously for families facing a dementia diagnosis — once capacity is gone, the window closes. If you're planning after a recent diagnosis, do it now.
• Your signature needs either notarization or two qualified adult witnesses. Witnesses can't be your treating provider or its employees, your designated health care agent, or an owner/operator/employee of the care facility where you're being treated. When in doubt, use a notary — banks and UPS stores across Wyoming do this for a few dollars.
• If you can't physically sign, you can direct another person to sign for you in your presence.

There's no filing with the state and no fee. Validity comes entirely from proper execution and from the right people having copies.

What Your Wyoming Living Will Can Actually Say

Part 2 of the directive lets you record specific instructions about life-sustaining treatment if you're terminally ill or permanently unconscious, including:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) — attempt it or not.
• Artificially administered nutrition and hydration — tube feeding and IV fluids.
• Mechanical ventilation and other life support — start, continue, or withdraw.
• Comfort care — Wyoming law requires providers to offer comfort measures, pain management, and oral food and water whenever medically feasible, even under a "do not treat" instruction.

You can also write dementia-specific provisions — for example, directing your agent on what to do at defined stages of cognitive decline. Vague language ("no extraordinary measures") creates fights; specific scenarios create compliance.

What a Wyoming living will cannot do: request medical aid in dying. Wyoming has no MAID or "death with dignity" statute. Under W.S. § 35-22-414, the legal options are refusing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment — which carries full civil and criminal immunity for providers who comply in good faith. Also note the pregnancy rule: your treatment instructions are suspended while you're pregnant.

Living Will vs. Health Care Power of Attorney

In Wyoming these aren't competing documents — they're two parts of the same form. The living will (Part 2) answers what you want; the power of attorney (Part 1) answers who speaks for you when a situation arises that your instructions didn't anticipate. A living will alone leaves your family interpreting it; an agent alone leaves them guessing. You want both, which is exactly how the state form is built. For the agent side of the form, see our guide to the Wyoming medical power of attorney.

How to Revoke or Change a Wyoming Living Will

The revocation rules are asymmetric, and this trips people up. Under W.S. § 35-22-404:

• Your instructions (Part 2) can be revoked at any time, in any manner that clearly communicates your intent — including orally. But an oral revocation must be written down, dated, and signed by you or a witness as soon as possible. Tell the ER nurse "I revoke it" and someone needs to document that immediately.
• Your agent appointment (Part 1) can only be revoked by a signed writing while you still have capacity.
• Divorce automatically revokes your spouse's appointment as agent unless the decree or your directive says otherwise — but it does not touch your written treatment instructions.

The practical habit: review your directive after any divorce, new diagnosis, or family falling-out, and re-execute a fresh one rather than relying on a patchwork of revocations.

Getting It Done

Download the statutory form from the Wyoming Hospital Association or a Wyoming hospital system, complete Parts 1 and 2, sign before a notary or two qualified witnesses, and distribute copies to your agent and your doctor. If you'd rather have the execution rules, witness eligibility checklist, treatment-preference worksheet, and revocation tracker in one guided package — so nothing gets missed between "printed the form" and "hospital will actually honor it" — the Wyoming Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks you through it step by step.

See more Wyoming guides →