Health care directive in Colorado: form, signing and who decides
The form, who can witness, who can be your agent and who decides if you have no directive in Colorado.
Checked against official sources: October 31, 2026.
Short answer
Medical durable power of attorney (Colorado Patient Autonomy Act); separately, a declaration as to medical treatment (living will)
- How to sign
- Signed by you; the law requires no notary or witnesses
- Who decides without a directive
- Yes
The document and its form
- Document
- Medical durable power of attorney (Colorado Patient Autonomy Act); separately, a declaration as to medical treatment (living will)
- Living will
Declaration as to medical treatment (Colorado Medical Treatment Decision Act)
The living will is a separate document.
An adult with decisional capacity can sign a declaration directing that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn if they have a terminal condition or are in a persistent vegetative state and cannot decide. You can state whether artificial nutrition and hydration should be stopped, continued for a set time, or continued. Sign it in front of two witnesses, or acknowledge it before a notary. If you cannot sign, someone else can sign for you in your presence at your direction. These people cannot sign for you or serve as witness or notary: any physician, an employee of your attending physician or of the facility where you are a patient, anyone with a claim against your estate, and anyone who expects to inherit from you under a will or as an heir. You or someone for you must give it to your doctor. It can be combined with a medical durable power of attorney.
Law: C.R.S. §§ 15-18-104, 15-18-105, 15-18-106
Signing rules
- How to sign
Colorado's Patient Autonomy Act does not set witness or notary requirements for a medical durable power of attorney. A living will (declaration) has its own signing rule: two witnesses or a notary.
- Who signs
A written medical durable power of attorney signed by you.
- Notary
- Not required
- Witnesses
- None required
Law: C.R.S. §§ 15-14-501, 15-14-505, 15-14-506
Who can be your agent and what the agent can do
- When the agent starts
Your agent can consent to or refuse medical treatment for you when you lack decisional capacity, and has the same rights as you to see your medical records.
Law: C.R.S. 15-14-506(3)
- Decisions an agent cannot make
Your agent must follow the directions and limits in the document and your known wishes, otherwise your best interests. No agent may consent to or refuse treatment over your objection. A provider is not required to give treatment that is illegal or medically inappropriate.
Law: C.R.S. 15-14-506(2); C.R.S. 15-14-506(4)(a); C.R.S. 15-14-506(5)(b)
Revoking and conflicting documents
- Revoking your agent
You keep the right to revoke your agent's authority. The Act does not prescribe a form for doing so.
Law: C.R.S. 15-14-506(4)(a)
- Revoking your instructions
A living will (declaration) can be revoked orally, in writing, or by burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating or destroying it.
Law: C.R.S. 15-18-109
- Telling others
A doctor may follow a living will that looks properly signed unless they have actual notice of revocation. Withholding information about a revocation is a crime.
Law: C.R.S. 15-18-110; C.R.S. 15-18-113(4)
- Divorce ends a spouse's authority
- Yes · Divorce rules in Colorado (Divorce Law Map)
- Conflicting documents
A medical durable power of attorney signed under the Patient Autonomy Act prevails over an older (pre-July 1992) durable power of attorney with medical authority. A living will prevails over a conflicting general durable power of attorney, unless you wrote that your agent may override it.
Law: C.R.S. 15-14-506(6); C.R.S. 15-18-112(3), (4)
Law: C.R.S. §§ 15-14-506(4), (5)(c), 15-18-109
If you have no directive
- Who decides without a directive
If your doctor finds you lack decisional capacity and you have no guardian, medical agent or other legal decision-maker, the doctor must try to find interested persons. They must try to agree on one proxy decision-maker, who should be the person closest to you and most likely to know your current wishes. There is no ranked order. If they cannot agree, any of them may start a guardianship case. If no interested person can be found or is willing, a physician may be designated with an ethics committee's agreement. A proxy may refuse tube feeding or fluids only after two physicians, one trained in neurology or neurosurgery, certify the conditions in the law.
- Interested persons together choose one proxy decision-maker by consensus: your spouse, either parent, any adult child, sibling or grandchild, or a close friend
Law: C.R.S. § 15-18.5-103
Other states, registry and medical orders
- Signed in another state
A medical durable power of attorney signed in another state is presumed to comply with Colorado law and may be relied on in good faith. A living will valid where it was signed is effective in Colorado to the extent it does not violate Colorado law.
Law: C.R.S. 15-14-509; C.R.S. 15-18-108(6)
- POLST (medical orders)
Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (MOST)
Law: C.R.S. §§ 15-18.7-101 to 15-18.7-110
Free notice: revoke or change a health care directive
Free help in Colorado
- Colorado Legal Services (free civil legal help for eligible low-income Coloradans and people 60+)
- Colorado Department of Human Services: Adult Protective Services
- Find free legal aid at LawHelp.org
Report abuse or exploitation
Questions about powers of attorney in Colorado
How do I sign a health care directive in Colorado?
Colorado's Patient Autonomy Act does not set witness or notary requirements for a medical durable power of attorney. A living will (declaration) has its own signing rule: two witnesses or a notary.
Who decides my health care if I have no directive in Colorado?
If your doctor finds you lack decisional capacity and you have no guardian, medical agent or other legal decision-maker, the doctor must try to find interested persons. They must try to agree on one proxy decision-maker, who should be the person closest to you and most likely to know your current wishes.