A Virginia living will form, more formally called an advance directive, lets you put your end-of-life treatment wishes in writing and name someone to speak for you if you cannot speak for yourself. The Virginia State Bar publishes a free template that satisfies state law, you do not need a lawyer or a notary to use it, and it takes effect only after a physician certifies you have lost the capacity to make your own healthcare decisions.
Where to Get the Form
The Virginia State Bar’s Healthcare Decisions Day page offers a free downloadable advance directive that complies with the Health Care Decisions Act.1Virginia State Bar. Healthcare Decisions Day The Virginia Judicial System’s court self-help website links to the same form along with plain-language guidance.2Virginia Judicial System Court Self-Help. Living Will – Advance Directive
You are not required to use any particular template. A document you draft yourself is valid as long as it meets the signing and witnessing rules in Virginia Code 54.1-2983.3Virginia State Bar. Virginia Advance Directive for Health Care Starting with the official form is simply the easiest way to avoid leaving out something the statute expects.
What the Form Asks You to Decide
The Virginia advance directive covers three main areas: appointing a healthcare agent, stating your treatment preferences, and making anatomical gift decisions. You do not have to complete every section. The statutory suggested form specifically tells you to cross through any option you do not want to use, and leaving a section blank does not invalidate the rest.4Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2984 – Suggested Form of Written Advance Directives
Naming a Healthcare Agent
Appointing an agent is optional but strongly recommended. If you skip this part, you still have a valid living will stating your treatment wishes, but no one has clear legal authority to interpret those wishes or respond to situations you did not anticipate. The State Bar’s guidance notes that a power of attorney for healthcare is broader than a written directive alone because “it may not be possible to anticipate all possible medical situations.”5Virginia State Bar. Healthcare Decisions Day
Record your agent’s full name, address, and phone number. Pick someone who knows your values and can hold firm in difficult conversations with doctors. Name at least one alternate in case your first choice is unavailable; the statutory form provides a blank line for the alternate directly below the primary agent.4Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2984 – Suggested Form of Written Advance Directives
Once activated, your agent’s authority is broad. Under the standard form language, the agent can consent to, refuse, or withdraw consent to any treatment, surgery, diagnostic procedure, or medication, including mechanical ventilation, tube feeding, IV fluids, and CPR.3Virginia State Bar. Virginia Advance Directive for Health Care The agent can also request and review your medical records, which functions like a built-in HIPAA authorization.
Stating Your Treatment Preferences
This section is where you spell out what you do and do not want if you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious. The form asks whether life-prolonging procedures should be continued, withheld, or withdrawn once your attending physician determines you have a terminal condition. You can give specific instructions or keep them general.
Common choices on the form include:
- CPR, meaning chest compressions and defibrillation if your heart stops.
- Mechanical ventilation to keep you breathing.
- Artificial nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube or IV when you cannot eat or drink.
- Pain management, including higher-than-standard doses that keep you comfortable even if they carry a risk of hastening death.
The State Bar form covers all four and leaves blank lines for additional instructions in your own words.3Virginia State Bar. Virginia Advance Directive for Health Care The more concrete you are, the easier your wishes are to honor.
Pregnancy Instructions
The statutory form includes an optional pregnancy section where you can modify your end-of-life instructions in case you are pregnant when a terminal condition is diagnosed.4Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2984 – Suggested Form of Written Advance Directives Leaving it blank can create uncertainty for doctors; filling it in removes that ambiguity.
Anatomical Gifts
You can use the directive to make an anatomical gift of all or part of your body after death, including organ, tissue, and eye donations, under the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.6Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2981 – Health Care Decisions Act You can also appoint an agent specifically for anatomical gift decisions, either the same person as your healthcare agent or someone different. If you want to limit donations to certain organs or to research rather than transplantation, write that out clearly.
Signing and Witnessing
Sign the completed form in front of two witnesses, each at least 18 years old.7Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2982 – Definitions Virginia law is unusually permissive about who qualifies: spouses, blood relatives, and employees of healthcare facilities or physician’s offices may all serve. The statute does not disqualify your named healthcare agent from witnessing, though many attorneys suggest using someone else to avoid any appearance of undue influence.
Each witness signs and dates the form in the attestation block, and most templates also ask for witness addresses. Notarization is not required for the directive to be legally valid in Virginia.8Sentara Health Plans. Advance Care Plans A notary seal can still be worth getting if you spend time in other states, since some of them require notarization and may be more willing to honor an out-of-state document that carries one.
When the Directive Takes Effect
Your advance directive does not touch your own decision-making as long as you can communicate. It activates only after two certifications: your attending physician examines you and certifies in writing that you cannot make an informed healthcare decision, and a separate capacity reviewer independently examines you and provides a second written certification.9Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2983.2 – Capacity Required Determinations The capacity reviewer cannot be a physician already treating you unless an independent reviewer is not reasonably available.
There is one exception. If you are unconscious or have a profound impairment of consciousness from trauma, stroke, or another acute condition, the attending physician’s certification alone is enough. Once the directive is active, the certifications must be renewed at least every 180 days while care continues.
What the Directive Cannot Authorize
Even an authorized agent cannot use a Virginia advance directive to consent to abortion, nontherapeutic sterilization, or psychosurgery.10Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2983.3 – Exclusions and Limitations of Advance Directives These are statutory exclusions and no form language can override them.
Registering and Distributing the Document
Virginia maintains a free online Advance Health Care Directive Registry through ConnectVirginia, administered by the Virginia Department of Health, where you can store your directive so authorized medical providers, emergency personnel, and family members can access it.11Virginia Department of Health. Advance Health Care Directive Registry You can submit the advance directive itself, a healthcare power of attorney, an anatomical gift declaration, or a Do Not Resuscitate order. Only you or your legal representative can file the document.
Registration is a good backup, not a substitute for handing out copies. Give one to:
- Your healthcare agent and each alternate, so they know they have been named and what you want.
- Your primary care physician, who is required to make the directive part of your medical record once notified.12Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2983 – Procedure for Making Advance Directive
- Any hospital or specialist office where you regularly receive care.
- Close family members who are not your named agent, so they know the document exists and where to find it.
Keep the original somewhere safe but quickly accessible, like a home filing cabinet or a fireproof folder. A bank safe-deposit box is a poor choice because it may be unreachable on evenings, weekends, or during an emergency.
Changing or Revoking the Directive
You can revoke the directive at any time, in whole or in part, as long as you understand what you are doing. Virginia recognizes three methods:13Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2985 – Revocation of an Advance Directive
- A signed and dated written revocation.
- Physical destruction of the original, which you can direct someone else to do in your presence.
- Oral revocation, by telling your attending physician you revoke it.
Revocation takes effect when your attending physician learns about it, so tell your doctor and your agent as soon as you decide. If you revoke only part of the directive, the rest stays in force.
One automatic revocation catches people off guard. Filing for divorce or annulment from your agent, or filing a custody or visitation petition involving a child you share with your agent, strips that agent’s authority on its own. If that happens and you still want someone making healthcare decisions for you, execute a new directive naming a different agent.
To amend rather than revoke, the simplest path is to sign an entirely new advance directive. The new document supersedes any conflicting provisions in the old one. Destroy the old copies and send the new version to everyone who had the previous one.