Living Will in Indiana: Requirements, Forms, and What Families Need to Know

If your parent lives in Indiana and you're trying to make sure their end-of-life healthcare wishes are documented, you'll encounter an important distinction: Indiana law handles living wills and healthcare decision-making differently than many other states. Understanding the Indiana framework — including what a "living will declaration" covers and what it doesn't — is essential before you fill out any forms.

Indiana's Two-Document Approach

Indiana uses two separate legal instruments for end-of-life healthcare planning:

1. Living Will Declaration — A written statement of your parent's wishes regarding life-prolonging procedures. This document tells healthcare providers what to do (or not do) if your parent is terminally ill and unable to communicate.

2. Health Care Representative Designation — Indiana's term for a healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney. This designates who makes healthcare decisions when your parent can't.

These are separate documents in Indiana. Some families complete only the living will and assume it's sufficient — but the living will only applies in specific circumstances and cannot cover every medical scenario. The healthcare representative designation is arguably more important because it gives a trusted person the authority to make case-by-case decisions.

Indiana Living Will Declaration: What It Covers

Indiana's living will law (IC 16-36-4) allows individuals to direct the withdrawal or withholding of life-prolonging procedures when two conditions are met:

1. The person is in a terminal condition — an incurable or irreversible condition that will result in death within a short time
2. The application of life-prolonging procedures would only prolong the dying process, not restore health

If both conditions are met and the person is unable to communicate, the living will declaration becomes operative.

What "Life-Prolonging Procedures" Means in Indiana

Under Indiana law, life-prolonging procedures include CPR, mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and hydration (feeding tubes), and dialysis when used solely to delay death. The living will can either request all measures be used, or decline specific ones.

What the Indiana Living Will Does NOT Cover

The Indiana living will is narrowly scoped. It does not cover:

• Non-terminal conditions — a parent with dementia who can no longer communicate is not necessarily in a "terminal condition" under the legal definition, meaning the living will may not apply
• Palliative care preferences — the form is primarily about what to withhold, not what comfort measures to provide
• Day-to-day medical decisions — routine care, treatment of infections, medication changes

This is why the healthcare representative designation is essential as a companion document. The representative has broader authority to make medical decisions across a wider range of situations.

Indiana Health Care Representative Designation

Indiana's Health Care Consent Act (IC 16-36-1) governs healthcare decision-making. The Healthcare Representative Designation is Indiana's equivalent of a medical power of attorney or healthcare proxy.

The designated representative has authority to:

• Make healthcare decisions based on the patient's known wishes, values, and best interests
• Consent to or refuse treatment
• Access medical records relevant to making decisions
• Make decisions about hospice, palliative care, and placement

Important: Indiana also has a default "next of kin" hierarchy that applies if there is no designated representative. In order of priority: spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling, grandparent. However, relying on this default means healthcare providers must try to contact and obtain consent from family members under a rigid hierarchy — a process that creates delays and conflicts. Designating a specific representative eliminates this uncertainty.

Requirements for a Valid Indiana Advance Directive

For the Living Will Declaration:

• Must be in writing and signed by the declarant (your parent)
• Must be dated
• Must be signed in the presence of two witnesses who are 18 or older
• Witnesses cannot be: a relative of the declarant, a potential heir of the declarant, the declarant's physician or any employee of the physician, or the administrator of any healthcare facility in which the declarant is a patient
• Does not require notarization (though it is recommended for added authentication)

For the Healthcare Representative Designation:

• Must be in writing and signed by the principal (your parent)
• Must be dated
• Must be signed in the presence of two witnesses (same restrictions as above)
• The designated representative must be at least 18 years old
• Does not require notarization
• The representative does not need to sign the document (acceptance is implied), though some forms include an acceptance section

Where to Get Indiana Forms

Free official sources:

• Indiana State Department of Health (in.gov/isdh) — provides standardized forms
• CaringInfo (caringinfo.org) — the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization offers free Indiana advance directive forms with instructions
• Indiana Legal Services (indianalegalservices.org) — free legal help for low-income seniors, including help completing advance directives

Low-cost options:

• Five Wishes — Note: Indiana is one of a handful of states where Five Wishes is NOT legally recognized as a living will declaration. In Indiana, you must use a document that meets the state's specific statutory requirements
• LegalZoom, Trust & Will — offer Indiana-specific documents for $89–$179

Attorney assistance: An Indiana estate attorney typically charges $150–$350 to draft both the living will declaration and healthcare representative designation. If your parent also needs a financial power of attorney and will, expect $500–$1,500 for a complete estate planning package.

A Critical Indiana Nuance: Dementia and Incapacity

Because Indiana's living will only applies in terminal conditions, it provides limited protection for parents with progressive dementia. A parent with advanced Alzheimer's who can no longer make decisions is not necessarily "terminally ill" in the legal sense until the very late stages.

For these situations, the healthcare representative designation is the more protective document — it gives the representative authority to make decisions across the progression of the disease, not just at the end stage. Additionally, a Physicians Order for Scope of Treatment (POST) form in Indiana — similar to POLST forms in other states — can be signed by a physician to convert the parent's wishes into medical orders that follow them across care settings.

If your parent has a dementia diagnosis, completing the Healthcare Representative Designation and working with their physician to establish a POST form is more practically protective than the living will alone.

How to Actually Get This Done

The most common barrier is inertia. The forms exist, they're accessible, and they don't require a lawyer. What they require is a conversation.

Step 1: Talk with your parent about their wishes — specifically, what conditions would make life not worth living to them, and who they trust to make decisions if they can't. This conversation is the foundation for everything else.

Step 2: Download the Indiana forms from ISDH or CaringInfo.

Step 3: Complete the forms together with your parent. Read each section out loud. Don't assume they understand — explain each decision.

Step 4: Sign with qualified witnesses present. Don't use relatives or potential heirs as witnesses.

Step 5: Make copies. Give one to your parent's primary care physician (ask to have it added to their medical record), one to the designated healthcare representative, and keep one at home in a known location. If your parent is in a care facility, give one to the facility administrator.

Step 6: Update as needed. Review every five years or after any significant change in health, relationships, or preferences.

The Bigger Picture

Indiana's advance directive documents handle healthcare during incapacity. But end-of-life planning also includes:

• Financial power of attorney — for managing accounts, paying bills, and handling finances when your parent can't
• Will or revocable living trust — for directing asset distribution after death
• Funeral and burial preferences — documented in writing so family knows what to do
• Document locator — a record of where every important document is stored

Our End-of-Life Planning Workbook includes a US Legal Reference Sheet that explains all of these documents, when they apply, and how to store them — plus worksheets for organizing everything in one place. If your parent is in Indiana and hasn't completed any of this yet, the workbook gives you a structured process to work through it together.