How to Fill Out and Sign a Colorado Living Will Form

The Colorado living will form lets any adult with decisional capacity put binding end-of-life instructions in writing, and it becomes legally effective once you sign it in front of either two qualified witnesses or a notary public. The form is authorized by the Colorado Medical Treatment Decision Act in Article 18 of Title 15 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. You don’t need a lawyer. You do need to make real choices about two medical scenarios and about artificial nutrition, and you need to pick witnesses who meet the statute’s rules.

Decisional capacity, under the statute, means the ability to give informed consent to or refuse medical treatment.¹ If you have that, you can execute the document. The Colorado Hospital Association publishes a free booklet with ready-to-use forms if you don’t want to draft your own.²

The Decisions the Form Asks You to Make

Under C.R.S. § 15-18-104, the declaration covers two separate medical scenarios, and you make choices for each one independently.³

Terminal Condition

A terminal condition under Colorado law is an incurable or irreversible condition where life-sustaining procedures would only prolong the dying process.¹ You direct whether life-sustaining procedures should be withheld or withdrawn if you reach this stage and can no longer make your own medical decisions.

“Life-sustaining procedure” is defined as any medical intervention that would serve only to prolong dying. The definition explicitly excludes comfort care and pain relief, so choosing to stop life-sustaining treatment does not mean choosing to stop pain management.¹

Persistent Vegetative State

The form also addresses persistent vegetative state, which Colorado law defines by reference to prevailing community medical standards rather than a fixed clinical definition.¹ You make the same choices about life-sustaining procedures for this scenario separately from the terminal condition section.

Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

For each scenario, the declaration asks for a separate written statement about feeding tubes and intravenous hydration. You have three options:³

Discontinue artificial nutrition and hydration.
Continue them for a set period you specify (for example, 30 days), after which they are withdrawn.
Continue them indefinitely, regardless of your condition.

Most people slow down here, and that’s the right instinct. Pick the option that matches what you actually want rather than leaving it blank or vague. Families often say later that they wished the person had been more explicit on this question than on any other.

How to Sign the Form So It’s Valid

Colorado gives you two ways to execute the declaration, and you only need one of them, not both:⁴

Sign the declaration in the physical presence of two qualifying witnesses, or
Sign the declaration and have it acknowledged before a notary public or another individual authorized to take acknowledgments.

Witnessing and notarization are alternatives under C.R.S. § 15-18-106. A court can override the notarization-only option “in the interest of justice,” which is a narrow exception, but for practical purposes either method works on its own.

If you are physically unable to sign, someone else may sign for you in your presence and at your direction. That substitute signer is subject to the same disqualification rules as witnesses.⁵

Who Cannot Serve as a Witness or Notary

Colorado law bars certain people from acting as a witness, notary, or substitute signer for your living will. The disqualified categories are:⁵⁴

Your attending physician or any other physician.
Employees of your attending physician or the healthcare facility where you are a patient.
Anyone with a claim against your estate at the time you sign.
Anyone who knows or believes they are entitled to a portion of your estate, whether through a current will or as an heir at law.

The safest witnesses are friends, neighbors, or coworkers with no financial connection to you. If you use the notarization route, confirm the notary also falls outside these disqualified categories. C.R.S. § 15-18-106(2) applies the same restrictions to notaries.

What to Do With the Signed Form

A living will in a desk drawer does nothing. Get copies to the people who will need them.

Deliver a copy to your primary care physician and ask that it be scanned into your medical record. Give copies to any specialists you see regularly. When you are admitted to a hospital, nursing home, hospice, or home health program that accepts Medicare or Medicaid, federal law requires the facility to ask whether you have an advance directive.⁶ Bring a copy to each admission so the facility can add it to your file right away.

Colorado also maintains a statewide electronic Advance Directive Registry through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, authorized under C.R.S. § 25-54-101.⁷ Uploading your document gives hospital staff another way to find it in an emergency when your family may not be reachable.

Give copies to your closest family members and to anyone you’ve named as a medical power of attorney. Tell them what you chose and why. The conversation is uncomfortable, and it’s far easier than a family member reading the document for the first time in a hospital hallway.

When the Document Actually Takes Effect

The living will becomes operative only when two conditions exist at the same time: you have a terminal condition or are in a persistent vegetative state, and you lack decisional capacity to accept or refuse treatment.³ Your attending physician makes both determinations. Until both are confirmed, the document has no effect, and you keep full authority over your own care decisions as long as you can communicate them.

Once the living will is triggered, the attending physician is expected to follow its terms. C.R.S. § 15-18-107 addresses the physician’s obligation to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining procedures according to the declaration. If a physician is unwilling to comply for moral or professional reasons, the standard practice is to transfer the patient to another provider who will carry out the directive. The statute protects healthcare providers from liability when they act in good faith based on a properly executed living will.⁸

One boundary matters for anyone relying on this form alone. A Colorado living will addresses terminal conditions and persistent vegetative states. It does not cover temporary incapacity from an accident or surgery when recovery is expected. For those situations, a separate medical power of attorney naming an agent to make decisions on your behalf is what fills the gap. Most estate-planning attorneys recommend completing both documents together.

How to Revoke or Update It

Colorado law provides for revocation of a living will under C.R.S. § 15-18-109. The usual methods are executing a new declaration that supersedes the old one, or making a clear written revocation. If you revoke, notify everyone who received a copy: your doctors, any facility holding it, family members, and the advance directive registry if you uploaded it.

There is no expiration date on a Colorado living will. It stays in effect until you revoke or replace it. Review the document after major life changes such as a new marriage or divorce, a serious diagnosis, a move to a different state, or simply a shift in how you feel about the choices you made. Updating is easier than the original execution. You complete a new form with fresh witnesses or notarization and distribute it the same way.

1
FindLaw. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 15 – Section 15-18-103
2
Colorado Hospital Association. Advance Directives
3
Justia. Colorado Code 15-18-104 – Declaration as to Medical Treatment
4
Justia. Colorado Code 15-18-106 – Witnessed or Notarized Declaration
5
Justia. Colorado Code 15-18-105 – Inability of Declarant to Sign
6
Congress.gov. 101st Congress – Patient Self Determination Act of 1990
7
Colorado Secretary of State. 5 CCR 1006-3 Advance Directives Registry
8
Justia. Colorado Code Article 18 – Colorado Medical Treatment Decision Act