Living Will and Advance Health-Care Instruction Requirements in Oregon

At a glance

Oregon's future treatment instructions live in the state's combined Advance Directive for Health Care. The form also contains a representative appointment, but the instruction sections guide the representative and providers even when the adult leaves the appointment blank or the chosen person cannot be reached. A POLST is a separate clinician order and is outside this survey.

Requirements one by one

The directive must substantially follow Oregon's combined form

Under § 127.505, an Oregon advance directive contains both a form appointing a health-care representative and instructions to that representative. Section 127.529 supplies the form and says it must be followed substantially. Its instruction sections remain useful without an appointed representative and may include attached supplementary treatment material.

A capable adult may execute the directive under § 127.510. "Adult" includes someone age 18 or older, an emancipated minor, or a married minor. The directive is effective when signed and properly witnessed or notarized. The Act supplies no general oral-creation or directed-signer route.

Two witnesses and notarization are alternatives

Section 127.515 requires the adult to sign and then use one of two paths: at least two adults witness and sign, or a notary notarizes the form. Each witness must see the adult sign or acknowledge the signature. A witness cannot be the adult's attending physician or attending health-care provider, or the named representative or alternate.

Oregon does not add a general relative, inheritance, or facility-employee bar. It does add one setting-specific rule: if the adult is a long-term-care-facility patient and uses witnesses, one witness must be facility-designated and qualified under Department of Human Services rules.

The form names three condition settings

The instructions in § 127.529 offer choices for a terminal condition, an advanced progressive illness, and permanent unconsciousness. The adult may choose all sustaining treatment, artificial feeding and hydration without other listed life support, no sustaining treatment with comfort and natural dying, or a decision by the representative after considering the adult's values.

The form describes its terminal-condition prompt as an illness expected to cause death within six months regardless of treatment. The separate statutory definition in § 127.505(21) uses "death is imminent irrespective of treatment." The page preserves both texts instead of treating the form's lay prompt as a replacement definition.

An appointed representative acts only when the adult is incapable under § 127.535. A current objection to withholding life support or artificial nutrition must be treated as though the adult is capable. Section 127.540(5) separately limits representative authority unless the directive grants it or the listed condition is medically confirmed.

Oregon starts with a presumption favoring artificial food and fluids

Section 127.580 presumes an incapable person consented to life-sustaining artificial nutrition and hydration. The presumption can be overcome by a clear and specific capable-adult refusal, medical infeasibility or severe lasting pain, authority given to a representative, or the statute's specified permanent-unconsciousness, terminal, or advanced-progressive-illness paths. The listed medical conditions must be medically confirmed.

Before withholding life support or artificial nutrition, the attending provider determines that the applicable statutory conditions are met under § 127.640. Care continues under § 127.642 for oral and body hygiene, reasonable offers of oral food and fluids, pain and suffering relief, warmth, privacy, and respect for dignity.

The current Act has no pregnancy-specific override

The complete current §§ 127.505 through 127.660 contain no pregnancy suspension, viability test, live-birth condition, or pregnancy checkbox for the adult's instructions. Section 127.570 separately says the Act does not authorize mercy killing or an affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life beyond natural dying.

Life-support instructions have the broadest revocation rule

Under § 127.545, a direction or representative decision involving withholding life-sustaining procedures or artificially administered nutrition and hydration may be revoked at any time and in any manner that communicates the intent. Other directive provisions may be revoked at any time and in any manner while the adult is capable.

Revocation takes effect when communicated to the attending physician, attending provider, or representative. The representative relays it to a known provider when required, and the provider places the revocation in the medical record. Oregon's statutory registry in this chapter is for POLST clinician orders, not advance directives.

Refusal duties depend on whether a representative exists

A provider needs a copy before having a duty to give the directive effect and may presume a facially compliant copy valid absent contrary notice under § 127.575. Providers retain independent medical judgment.

Section 127.625 does not force a provider to participate in withdrawal. If a representative exists, the provider promptly notifies that person and the representative makes the reasonable transfer effort when authority is not in dispute. Without a representative, the provider avoids abandonment and either discharges the patient or reasonably seeks another provider and authorizes the transfer.

For an adult who resides in another state when signing, § 127.515(6) recognizes execution compliant with the law of that residence, the signing location, or Oregon. The subsection does not state a broader rule for every Oregon resident who signs elsewhere.

What trips people up

• The form is combined, but the instructions are not optional filler. They guide care even if no representative is selected or reachable.
• The witness exclusions are short. Oregon does not generally disqualify a witness merely for relationship, inheritance, or facility employment.
• Long-term care adds a special witness. The facility-designated witness applies only to a patient using the witness route in that setting.
• The terminal wording appears in two forms. The statutory definition uses imminent death, while the printed form describes a six-month prompt.
• Revocation is broader than execution. A life-support or tube-feeding instruction does not need a writing, witness, or notary to be revoked.

Common questions

Must I appoint a health-care representative?

The statutory directive contains an appointment section, but its own text says the treatment instructions still guide care if no representative is chosen or can be reached.

Must both witnesses be unrelated and disinherited?

No. Section 127.515 bars the attending provider and the named representative or alternate. It does not impose a general relationship or inheritance bar.

Is a notary required?

No. Notarization is an alternative to at least two qualified adult witnesses.

Does Oregon recognize an out-of-state form?

For an adult residing outside Oregon at execution, § 127.515 recognizes a form that follows the law of the residence, signing location, or Oregon.

Statutes and sources

• ORS 127.505 and 127.507 — adult, combined-directive, incapacity, condition, life-support, and current-decision definitions and rules. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.510 and 127.515 — effectiveness, medical-record copy, signature, witness or notary routes, long-term-care witness, and out-of-state execution. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.529 — required combined form, instruction architecture, three condition settings, treatment choices, signature, and witness declaration. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.535 and 127.540 — representative trigger, current objection, and limits on withdrawal authority. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.545 — revocation methods, communication, record entry, and later instruments. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.570, 127.575, and 127.580 — natural-dying boundary, copy and validity presumption, and artificial-nutrition presumption and exceptions. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.625, 127.640, and 127.642 — refusal, transfer roles, condition determination, and continuing comfort and cleanliness care. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• ORS 127.660 — short title. Official Chapter 127 (accessed 2026-07-31).