Health care directive in Kentucky: form, signing and who decides
The form, who can witness, who can be your agent and who decides if you have no directive in Kentucky.
Checked against official sources: October 31, 2026.
Short answer
Living Will Directive (advance directive designating a health care surrogate)
- How to sign
- Notarized or signed by two adult witnesses
- Who decides without a directive
- Yes
The document and its form
- Document
- Living Will Directive (advance directive designating a health care surrogate)
- Official form
- Living Will Directive (KRS 311.625), in the Attorney General's Kentucky Living Will PacketPublished by Office of the Kentucky Attorney General (also a Spanish packet)Version: Packet PDF last modified September 2019; form text matches KRS 311.625 (amended 2013)
You do not have to use it.
- Living will
Living Will Directive
Part of the directive.
The same form lets you refuse or request life-prolonging treatment and tube feeding if you have a terminal condition or become permanently unconscious, name a surrogate, and state your wishes on organ donation.
Law: KRS 311.625; KRS 311.623, 311.625
Signing rules
- How to sign
Date and sign the Living Will Directive in front of two qualified adult witnesses, or acknowledge it before a notary public.
- Who signs
Signed by you, or at your direction, and dated, in writing.
- Notary
- A notary or witnesses (your choice)
- Witnesses
- 2 (instead of a notary)
- Who cannot witness
Either two or more adult witnesses who sign in your presence and in each other's presence, or a notary public. None of these may be a witness or the notary: a blood relative; a person who would inherit from you under Kentucky's descent and distribution law; an employee of a health care facility where you are a patient (unless serving as the notary); your attending physician; or anyone directly financially responsible for your health care.
- Nursing facilities and special settings
An employee of a health care facility where you are a patient may not witness (but may serve as the notary). An employee, owner, director or officer of a facility where you live or are a patient may not be your surrogate unless related to you within the fourth degree or a member of the same religious or fraternal order.
Law: KRS 311.625(2), (4)
Who can be your agent and what the agent can do
- Who cannot be your agent
Your surrogate must be an adult. An employee, owner, director or officer of a health care facility where you are a resident or patient may not be your surrogate unless related to you within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity or a member of the same religious or fraternal order.
Law: KRS 311.623(1)(c), 311.625(4)
- When the agent starts
The surrogate acts only when you no longer have decisional capacity; the surrogate may not decide while your attending physician finds in good faith that you have capacity.
Law: KRS 311.629(2)
- Decisions an agent cannot make
The surrogate must follow your wishes in the directive and consider the attending physician's recommendation. Tube feeding and fluids may be withheld only when death is imminent, when you are permanently unconscious and your directive authorizes it, when they cannot be assimilated, or when their burden outweighs their benefit, and never if needed for comfort or pain relief. Life-sustaining treatment and nutrition must be provided during pregnancy except in the stated medical circumstances. If two or more surrogates serve, decisions must be unanimous unless the directive says otherwise.
Law: KRS 311.623(1)(c), 311.629
Revoking and conflicting documents
- Revoking your agent
You can revoke the surrogate designation in whole or in part, or reduce the surrogate's powers, at any time while you have decisional capacity. A new designation revokes any earlier one unless you say otherwise.
- Revoking your instructions
You can revoke the directive by a signed and dated writing, by an oral statement in front of two adults (one of whom must be a health care provider), or by destroying it (or having someone destroy it in your presence at your direction). An oral revocation overrides any earlier written directive. Revocation is effective immediately, but the doctor or facility need not follow it until they receive notice.
- Telling others
Tell your attending physician and health care facility; on receiving notice they must record the time, date and place in your medical record.
- Conflicting documents
An oral revocation by a person with decisional capacity overrides any earlier written directive, and a new surrogate designation revokes an earlier one unless stated otherwise.
Law: KRS 311.627(2), (4)
Law: KRS 311.627
If you have no directive
- Who decides without a directive
If your physician has determined that you lack decisional capacity and you have no directive (or it does not cover the decision), the first reasonably available, willing and competent person in this order may decide. Psychiatric hospitalization under this law is limited to 14 consecutive days without a court order.
- Court-appointed guardian, if medical decisions are within the guardianship
- Attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney that specifically includes health care decisions
- Spouse
- Adult child (or the majority of available adult children)
- Parents
- Nearest living relative (or the majority of those of the same relation)
- An adult friend who kept regular contact and knows your activities, health and beliefs
Law: KRS 311.631
Other states, registry and medical orders
- POLST (medical orders)
Kentucky MOST (Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment), the standardized form of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure
Law: KRS 311.6225, 311.623(2)-(3); KRS 201 KAR 9:470
Free notice: revoke or change a health care directive
Free help in Kentucky
- Kentucky Justice Online (kyjustice.org)
- Kentucky Attorney General: Kentucky Living Will Packet
- Kentucky Court of Justice: Petition to Determine if Disabled (AOC-740)
- Find free legal aid at LawHelp.org
Report abuse or exploitation
Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Community Based Services, Adult Protection Branch · 1-877-597-2331
Questions about powers of attorney in Kentucky
How do I sign a health care directive in Kentucky?
Date and sign the Living Will Directive in front of two qualified adult witnesses, or acknowledge it before a notary public.
Who decides my health care if I have no directive in Kentucky?
If your physician has determined that you lack decisional capacity and you have no directive (or it does not cover the decision), the first reasonably available, willing and competent person in this order may decide.