How to Get a Living Will in Georgia: Form, Witnesses, and Storage

To get a living will in Georgia, download the state’s free Advance Directive for Health Care form, complete the sections that match your wishes, and sign it in front of two qualifying adult witnesses. Georgia combines the traditional living will and healthcare power of attorney into this single document, so one form covers both your end-of-life treatment instructions and your choice of a decision-maker.¹ No attorney and no notary are required.

The Document You Actually Need

Georgia replaced the old separate living will and durable power of attorney for health care with the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care. The statutory form uses plain language and is written so most people can finish it without professional help.¹ Inside the one document, you can:

Direct whether life-sustaining procedures, including artificial nutrition and hydration, should be withheld or withdrawn if you reach a terminal condition or permanent unconsciousness.²
Name a healthcare agent to make medical decisions when you cannot.²
Nominate a guardian if a court ever has to appoint one.
Record your preferences for organ donation, body donation, or how your remains should be handled.

You do not have to fill out every section. If you only want to name an agent and skip the treatment instructions, the form still works. If you only want treatment directions and no agent, that works too.

Where to Get the Form

The Georgia Division of Aging Services provides the official form at no cost. You can download it from the Division’s website, pick one up at the office at 2 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 9.398, Atlanta, GA 30303-3142, or request a copy by calling (404) 657-5319.³ Many hospitals and elder law attorneys keep copies on hand as well.

Georgia does not require you to use the official statutory form. Any written document that meets the statute’s execution requirements is valid.² The statutory form is still the safer bet. Hospitals recognize it immediately, and nobody has to argue later about whether a custom document complies with state law.

Hiring an attorney to draft or review your directive typically runs a few hundred dollars. It is worth the expense if you have a blended family, a complicated medical history, or any reason to expect family disputes. For most people with straightforward wishes, the free form is enough.

Who Can Create One and How to Sign It

You must be an adult of sound mind. Sound mind means you understand what the document does and what your choices mean. Physical condition does not matter. You can sign while seriously ill or hospitalized as long as you comprehend what you are signing.

The document must be in writing and signed by you. If a physical disability prevents you from holding a pen, someone else can sign on your behalf, in your presence, at your express direction.² That person is only acting as your hand and has no authority over the document.

Two witnesses must then attest to and sign the directive in your presence. Each witness has to be at least 18 and of sound mind.² Notarization is not required, though some people add it for extra verification.

Who Cannot Serve as a Witness

Georgia excludes people with a potential conflict of interest. A witness cannot be:

The person you named as your healthcare agent
Anyone who would inherit from you or otherwise benefit financially from your death
Anyone directly involved in providing your healthcare

No more than one of your two witnesses can be an employee, agent, or medical staff member at the facility where you are receiving care.² If you finish the form in the hospital, at most one witness can work there. The second has to come from outside.

Witness Timing

The two witnesses do not need to be in the room together or present when you sign. Each one signs in your presence, but the two signings can happen at different times.² That flexibility helps when lining up two qualifying witnesses at once is hard.

After You Sign: Where to Keep It and Who Gets a Copy

A valid directive is useless if nobody can find it. Keep the original somewhere accessible to more than just you. A fireproof home safe or a clearly labeled folder works. A bank safe deposit box does not, because your family may not be able to open it fast enough in an emergency.

Distribute copies to everyone who might need to act on the document:

Your healthcare agent and any alternate agents
Your primary care physician, with a request to add it to your medical record
Close family members, especially anyone likely to be present during a crisis
Any hospital or facility where you regularly receive care

Georgia law lets your agent present a copy in place of the original, and the copy carries the same legal effect.⁴ Photocopies and scans are fine for distribution. Hold onto the original for any later dispute.

Keeping Your Directive Current

Two life events change your directive automatically, and it catches people off guard. If you marry after signing, the marriage revokes any healthcare agent designation that names someone other than your new spouse, unless the directive explicitly says otherwise. The law assumes you would want your spouse making those calls. If you divorce or your marriage is annulled, any designation of your spouse as agent is automatically revoked.⁵ Your treatment instructions survive both events; only the agent designation changes. After a marriage, divorce, or any major life shift, sign a fresh directive that reflects the current picture.

You can revoke your directive at any time, regardless of your mental state. Georgia gives you four ways:⁵

Execute a new directive. The new one revokes earlier directives, living wills, and durable powers of attorney for health care only to the extent of any conflict. Non-conflicting provisions in the old document stay in effect.
Destroy the document by tearing, burning, or similar means. Someone else may destroy it at your direction and in your presence.
Write a signed, dated revocation stating your intent clearly. Another person may sign at your direction.
Speak the revocation in front of a witness who is at least 18. That witness must sign and date a written confirmation of what you said within 30 days.

If you want to change only certain provisions, the cleanest option is to sign a new directive from scratch rather than patching the old one.

Two Related Documents to Know About

An advance directive is not the same as a POLST, or Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. A POLST is a medical order signed by both you and your attending physician that converts your wishes into clinical instructions emergency responders can act on at the scene. Emergency personnel cannot act on an advance directive in the field, but they can act on a POLST. POLST forms are not for everyone. In Georgia, a physician may execute one when the patient has a serious illness and the physician reasonably believes the patient will die within the next 365 days, or at any time for someone diagnosed with dementia or another progressive degenerative brain disease. If you are generally healthy, the advance directive alone is the right tool. When a POLST and an advance directive conflict, the more recently signed document controls to the extent of the conflict.⁶

If you split time between states or travel often, be aware that recognition of a Georgia directive outside Georgia depends on the other state’s rules. Some states accept any directive valid where it was signed; others require the document to meet their own execution standards. If you spend significant time in a second state, consider signing a directive that complies with that state’s requirements too.

1
Georgia Department of Aging Services. Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care
2
Justia. Georgia Code 31-32-5 – Execution; Use of Form or Other Forms; Witnesses; Copies; Amendment
3
Georgia Department of Aging Services. Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care
4
Justia. Georgia Code 31-32-4 – Form
5
Justia. Georgia Code 31-32-6 – Revocation; Declarants Marriage or Appointment of a Guardian
6
Justia. Georgia Code 31-1-14 – Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment