Wisconsin Living Will: Form, Witnesses, and Revocation

A Wisconsin living will, officially called the Declaration to Health Care Professionals, is a free state-provided form that tells doctors whether you want life-sustaining treatment and feeding tubes if you ever end up with a terminal condition or in a persistent vegetative state. You do not need a lawyer or a notary to make one. You do need to be careful about which boxes you check and who signs as your witnesses, because small mistakes change what the document actually authorizes.

Who Can Sign One

Any Wisconsin resident who is at least 18 and of sound mind can sign a declaration.¹ Sound mind means you understand what the form does and what the choices mean. The law presumes you had capacity when you signed unless someone produces actual evidence otherwise.²

The Three Decisions the Form Asks You to Make

The form sets out three separate yes-or-no questions. Each pairs a specific medical situation with a specific type of treatment, and each is confirmed only after two health care professionals, at least one of them a physician, personally examine you.

If you have a terminal condition, do you want feeding tubes used?
If you are in a persistent vegetative state, do you want life-sustaining procedures such as mechanical ventilation, blood pressure support, or dialysis?
If you are in a persistent vegetative state, do you want feeding tubes used?

A terminal condition under Wisconsin law is an incurable injury or illness that medical judgment finds will cause death imminently, so treatment would only postpone the moment of death. A persistent vegetative state is a complete and irreversible loss of cerebral cortex function with no cognitive functioning or consciousness, even though involuntary bodily functions continue.³ Outside of these two diagnoses, the declaration does not control your care.

When you have a terminal condition and have not asked for life-sustaining procedures, the form directs providers to withhold them. The feeding tube questions sit on their own because Wisconsin treats tube feeding differently from other life-sustaining treatment.¹

The Feeding Tube Default

This is the mistake that trips people up. If you leave a feeding tube box unchecked, feeding tubes will be used. The form says so explicitly for each scenario.¹ Someone who skims the form intending to refuse all treatment but misses the feeding tube checkboxes has quietly authorized tube feeding. Read every section and mark every box that reflects your actual wishes.

The declaration also cannot be used to refuse food or water taken by mouth, unless your attending provider determines that oral feeding is medically harmful.¹

Signing and Witnesses

You and your two witnesses all sign the same document at the same time. The form prints this instruction in bold.¹ If you cannot physically sign, someone else can sign your name at your direction and in your presence, with both witnesses watching.

Wisconsin disqualifies several categories of people from witnessing:

Anyone related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Anyone who knows they are entitled to, or has a claim on, any part of your estate.
Anyone directly financially responsible for your health care costs.
The provider currently treating you, any employee of that provider, or any employee of the inpatient facility where you are a patient. A chaplain or social worker is an exception.
Anyone under 18.

These rules reach further than most people assume. A neighbor or coworker with no stake in your estate or your medical care is usually the safest pick.¹

When the Declaration Does Not Apply

Three limits are worth knowing before you sign, because each one covers a situation people often assume a living will handles.

Pregnancy. If your attending health care professional diagnoses you as pregnant, your declaration has no legal effect for the duration of the pregnancy. The statute draws no line between viable and nonviable pregnancies. The declaration resumes automatically once the pregnancy ends.²

Emergencies. A living will does not stop paramedics from attempting resuscitation. It only takes effect after two health care professionals confirm a terminal condition or persistent vegetative state, and that process does not happen in an ambulance. Emergency responders are required to resuscitate unless they see a valid Do-Not-Resuscitate order. Wisconsin uses a DNR bracelet system that your attending provider can set up once they issue a qualifying DNR order.⁴ If avoiding resuscitation at home matters to you, ask your doctor about a DNR order in addition to the living will.

Oral feeding. As noted above, food and water offered by mouth are not something the declaration can refuse.

Changing or Revoking It

You can revoke your declaration at any time while you still have capacity, in any of four ways:

Destroy the document, or direct someone else to destroy it in your presence, by canceling, defacing, tearing, or burning it.
Sign and date a written statement revoking it.
Say so out loud. A verbal revocation takes effect once you or someone acting for you notifies your attending health care professional.
Sign a new declaration, which automatically revokes the old one.

A spoken revocation that never reaches your care team cannot be enforced, so if you use that route, make sure the message actually lands with your provider.⁵ To update your wishes, the cleanest option is a brand-new form signed in front of fresh witnesses.

Is a Living Will Enough on Its Own?

Often no. The Declaration to Health Care Professionals only speaks to terminal conditions and persistent vegetative states. Every other medical decision you might become unable to make, from a surgery during a stroke recovery to a nursing home placement, falls outside it.

Wisconsin’s second advance directive, the Power of Attorney for Health Care under Chapter 155, fills that gap. It names a health care agent to make medical decisions for you whenever you cannot make them yourself, regardless of the diagnosis. The agent’s authority has limits: in Wisconsin, the agent cannot consent to withholding a feeding tube or to a long-term nursing home admission unless you specifically grant those powers in the document. Many people complete both forms so that the living will sets a clear floor for end-of-life care and the power of attorney covers everything else.

If the two documents cover the same situation, a competent patient’s current wishes override both. Once you can no longer communicate, the declaration is presumed valid and binds providers for the scenarios it addresses.²

What to Do With the Signed Form

A declaration nobody can find is no better than no declaration at all. Give a copy to your primary care provider so it goes into your medical record. Keep the original somewhere secure but accessible, and tell at least one trusted person exactly where it is. Let close family and your health care agent, if you have one, know the document exists and what it says. Those conversations are harder than the paperwork, and they prevent the worst outcome: a relative objecting at the bedside because the decision caught them by surprise.

Where to Get the Form

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services publishes the Declaration to Health Care Professionals online for free download.⁶ The statute requires it to be printed in type no smaller than 10 point and in easy-to-read language.¹ You can complete it on your own, but an attorney is worth consulting if your family situation is complicated or you want the declaration coordinated with a Power of Attorney for Health Care and the rest of your estate plan.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 154.03 – Declaration to Health Care Professionals
2
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 154.07 – Duties and Immunities
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code Chapter 154 – Advance Directives
4
Wisconsin Department of Health Services. EMS Do Not Resuscitate Information
5
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 154.05 – Revocation of Declaration
6
Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Advance Directives