Health care directive in Rhode Island: form, signing and who decides

The form, who can witness, who can be your agent and who decides if you have no directive in Rhode Island.

Checked against official sources: October 31, 2026.

Short answer

Statutory Form Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care

Official form
Statutory Form Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
How to sign
Notarized or signed by two adult witnesses

The document and its form

Document
Statutory Form Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
Official form
Statutory Form Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-2)Published by Rhode Island General AssemblyVersion: Statute last amended P.L. 2006, ch. 604
Living will

Declaration (Rights of the Terminally Ill Act)

The living will is a separate document.

A competent adult can sign a declaration about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures. It must be signed in the presence of two witnesses who are not related to you by blood or marriage. It takes effect only when it has been given to your attending physician, the physician finds you are in a terminal condition, and you cannot make treatment decisions. The statute includes a form you may use.

Living will

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 23-4.10-1.1(5), 23-4.10-2; R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-4.11-3

Signing rules

How to sign

Sign the statutory form in front of two qualified adult witnesses or one notary public. One witness or the notary must sign the extra declaration about not being related to you and not inheriting from you. The form says you must be at least 18 and a Rhode Island resident.

Who signs

Signed and dated by you. If you attach extra pages, date and sign each one at the same time.

Notary
A notary or witnesses (your choice)
Witnesses
2 (instead of a notary)
Who cannot witness

Two qualified adult witnesses, or one notary public, who are present when you sign or acknowledge your signature. None of these may be a witness: your agent or alternate agent, a health care provider, an employee of a health care provider, the operator of a community care facility, or an employee of that operator. At least one of the witnesses (or the notary) must also declare that they are not related to you by blood, marriage or adoption and are not entitled to any part of your estate by will or by law.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-4.10-2

Who can be your agent and what the agent can do

Who cannot be your agent

None of these may be named as your health care agent: your treating health care provider, a nonrelative employee of your treating health care provider, an operator of a community care facility, or a nonrelative employee of that operator. The form names one agent, with alternates.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-2

When the agent starts

Your agent decides only when you cannot give informed consent to the particular decision; you keep the right to decide for yourself while you can. No treatment may be given over your objection, and life-sustaining care may not be stopped if you object at the time. Unless you set a period, the power lasts until you revoke it, and it ends at your death except for telling family about organ donation wishes.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-2

Decisions an agent cannot make

Your agent must act consistently with your wishes as stated or otherwise known. A court can take away the agent's power if the agent authorizes anything illegal, acts against your known wishes, or, where your wishes are unknown, acts clearly against your best interests.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-2

Revoking and conflicting documents

Revoking your agent

You can revoke a durable power of attorney for health care at any time and in any way you can communicate, whatever your mental or physical condition. It is effective as to a doctor, provider or emergency personnel once they are told by you or by someone who witnessed the revocation. Signing a new statutory form revokes earlier health care powers of attorney.

Revoking your instructions

A declaration (living will) can be revoked the same way, at any time and in any manner you can communicate.

Telling others

Your attending physician or provider must put the revocation in your medical record. For emergency medical services personnel, the absence of reliable documentation counts as a revocation.

Conflicting documents

If your declaration (living will) and your durable power of attorney for health care conflict, the one you signed later controls on the conflicting point.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.11-4(a)(3)

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 23-4.10-2, 23-4.10-3, 23-4.11-4

Other states, registry and medical orders

Signed in another state

A health care power of attorney or a declaration signed in another state in compliance with that state's law is valid in Rhode Island.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-11, 23-4.11-12

POLST (medical orders)

Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST), on a form approved by the Director of Health

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-4.11-3.1

Free notice: revoke or change a health care directive

Names and addresses of people and facilities that should know. They go into your letter only.

Other formats

Sign the letter and keep a copy. This tool does not check whether your document is valid, and it is not legal advice.

Free help in Rhode Island

Report abuse or exploitation

Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging (Adult Protective Services for people 60 and older)

Questions about powers of attorney in Rhode Island

How do I sign a health care directive in Rhode Island?

Sign the statutory form in front of two qualified adult witnesses or one notary public. One witness or the notary must sign the extra declaration about not being related to you and not inheriting from you. The form says you must be at least 18 and a Rhode Island resident.

More for Rhode Island