Living Will and Advance Health-Care Instruction Requirements in Connecticut

At a glance

Connecticut calls the adult's written future treatment instructions a living will. It may be a standalone document under § 19a-575 or the instruction part of the combined form in § 19a-575a. The combined form also appoints a health-care representative, designates a possible conservator, and addresses anatomical gifts; those appointment and gift provisions are separate from the living will.

Requirements one by one

The living will is signed and dated with at least two witnesses

Under § 19a-575 and § 19a-575a(a), a person who is at least 18 may execute health- care instructions. The maker signs and dates the document with at least two witnesses. The statute provides no notary alternative, directed-signer route, or electronic-specific execution method.

The treatment-only statute does not impose an ordinary relative, heir, provider, or facility-employee witness bar. § 19a-578 separately lets a witness make a sworn affidavit before an officer authorized to administer oaths to simplify later proof; that affidavit is optional and does not replace the witnesses.

If the same document also appoints a representative, § 19a-576(a) adds rules for the appointment side: the appointed person cannot witness, and residents of certain state mental-health or developmental-services facilities need the specified unaffiliated and specially trained witnesses. Those added rules should not be imported into a treatment-only living will.

An oral statement can show wishes but is not a living will

Section 19a-570(9) defines a living will as a written statement. Section 19a-578(b) nevertheless requires providers to record oral communications about health care, including life-support withholding or withdrawal. If a dispute reaches Probate Court, § 19a-580c(a) requires clear and convincing evidence of wishes communicated outside a statutory living-will document.

Operation and protected life-support removal have separate findings

Under § 19a-579, the living will becomes operative when it is furnished to the attending physician or APRN and that clinician determines incapacity. The definition in § 19a-570(7) asks whether the adult can understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of health-care decisions and reach and communicate an informed decision.

§ 19a-571(a) adds condition findings for protected withholding or removal of a life-support system. The attending physician or APRN must find a terminal condition, or must consult an examining physician qualified to make a neurological diagnosis before finding permanent unconsciousness. If neither condition is found, beneficial medical treatment, including nutrition and hydration, must be provided.

Life support includes artificial nutrition and hydration

Connecticut defines a life-support system to include mechanical or electronic devices and artificial means of nutrition or hydration. The optional form asks that life support not prolong dying in a terminal condition or permanent unconsciousness and lists artificial respiration, CPR, and artificial nutrition and hydration. The signer may cross out and initial systems the signer wants administered and may add other specific requests.

§ 19a-573(a) requires comfort care and pain alleviation in all cases. The combined form likewise states a desire for enough pain medication to maintain physical comfort.

The current form offers pregnancy choices rather than an override

Former §§ 19a-574 and 19a-575 show the change: the section titled nonapplicability to a pregnant patient was repealed in 2018, while the current optional form asks the signer to choose among three instructions: accept life support if the doctor believes it would allow the fetus to reach a live birth; apply the document without modification; or state alternative instructions.

The statute therefore does not impose the viability suspension stated in some generic forms. It supplies signer-selected pregnancy language. The form also states that it seeks no direct taking of life, only that dying not be unreasonably prolonged.

A living will may be revoked in any manner

Under § 19a-579a, the declarant may revoke the living will at any time and in any manner, without regard to mental or physical condition. The attending physician or other provider places the revocation in the medical record. A person without knowledge of revocation receives the statute's reliance protection.

The combined form's appointment of a representative has a different, formal revocation rule. That rule does not govern the living will, and revoking the appointment does not itself revoke the living will. Current Chapter 368w does not establish an advance-directive registry.

Providers consider the instructions and transfer if unwilling

Section 19a-571 requires consideration of the patient's expressed wishes and ties immunity to the usual and customary standards of medical practice and the required condition findings. Within a reasonable time before life-support removal, §§ 19a-580 and 19a-580a require reasonable notification efforts to the listed representative, family, guardian, conservator, or designated person if available, followed by prompt reasonable transfer steps from an unwilling attending physician or provider.

Under § 19a-580g, instructions executed in another state or country are deemed validly executed if they comply with that jurisdiction's law or Connecticut law and are not contrary to Connecticut public policy. The section also states the court-order, notarized-statement, and provider good-faith legal- analysis reliance routes.

What trips people up

• The living will and representative appointment have overlapping but different witness rules. The treatment-only will needs at least two witnesses; appointment-specific disqualifications arise only when the document also appoints a representative.
• One clinician triggers operation. The attending physician or APRN makes the incapacity determination under § 19a-579; a second physician enters the analysis only for the neurological permanent-unconscious finding.
• Pregnancy is a choice in the form, not a viability ban. The former pregnancy nonapplicability statute was repealed.
• Oral communications are evidence, not a written living will. Providers record them, and disputed non-document communications face a clear-and- convincing-evidence rule.
• Revocation is deliberately informal. Any manner works regardless of the declarant's mental or physical condition, with provider record notation.

Common questions

Does a Connecticut living will need notarization? No. It must be signed and dated with at least two witnesses. A witness affidavit may be notarized for proof, but that is optional.

When does the living will become operative? When it is furnished to the attending physician or APRN and that clinician determines the declarant is incapacitated under § 19a-579.

Can the form address a feeding tube? Yes. Artificial nutrition and hydration is included in the statutory definition and optional form's life-support language, and the form permits the signer to cross out and initial systems the signer wants administered.

What does the current form say about pregnancy? It offers three choices: life support if the doctor believes it would allow the fetus to reach a live birth, application without modification, or custom instructions. The former pregnancy suspension statute is repealed.

Statutes and sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 19a-570–19a-580g — current Chapter 368w definitions, living-will forms and execution, operation, treatment conditions, comfort care, pregnancy choices, revocation, provider procedure, and foreign-document recognition. https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/2025/pub/chap_368w.htm (accessed 2026-07-31)