Entering Your Personal Information

To begin making your health care documents, we ask you to provide some basic identifying information about yourself. (We assume here that you are making documents for yourself. If that is not the case, enter the information for the person you are helping.)

Your State

You are asked to specify the state of your legal residence, sometimes called a domicile. This is the state where you make your home now and for the indefinite future. This information is essential, because the program produces health care directives that are geared to the laws of the state you select. (If you travel to another state, your document will be honored in that state as long as it meets the requirements of the state where you live.)

If you divide up the year living in two or more states, you may not be sure which state is your legal residence. To decide, choose the state where you are the most rooted—that is, the state in which you:

• are registered to vote
• register your car
• own valuable property—especially property with a title document, such as a house
• have checking, savings and investment accounts, or
• maintain a business.

A health care document made in one state is usually valid in other states, too. Most states accept health care directives from other states as long as the documents are legally valid in the state where they were made. Some states limit reciprocity, however, accepting other states’ documents only to the extent that they comply with their own laws. And a few states are silent about whether or not they will honor documents from other states.

It sounds complicated, but keep in mind that you have a constitutional right to direct your health care; states may not infringe upon that basic right. This means that your essential health care wishes—such as whether or not you want to receive life-sustaining treatment when close to death— will most likely be honored from state to state, whether or not your documents exactly comply with state law.

Rarely would you want to make a set of health care documents for more than one state. If your health care instructions for each state weren’t absolutely identical, signing one document could simply revoke the other— whichever document was signed later would control. To make it even trickier, differences in state forms can make it almost impossible to prepare two sets of documents with identical directions.

If you spend a good deal of time in more than one state, do what you can to find out whether your home state’s health care documents fully protect you in the second state. You may be able to get the information you need by speaking to a patient representative at a hospital in the second state—explain your situation and ask what they recommend. At minimum, you should be sure your home state’s signature requirements— witnessing and notarization—cover the requirements for the second state, too. See Making Your Health Care Directive Legal. If they don’t, ask an extra witness to sign or get your documents notarized so they are fully compliant with the requirements of both states.

If you don’t feel confident that your health care wishes will be honored in both states where you spend time, ask an experienced estate planning lawyer for guidance.

Your Name

Enter your name in the same form that you use on other formal documents, such as your driver’s license or bank accounts. If you customarily use more than one name for official purposes, list all of them, separated by aka (“also known as”).

There is room for you to list several names. But use your common sense. For purposes of your health care directive, your name is needed to identify you and to match you with your medical records. Be sure to include any names you have used on other medical documents, such as prior hospital or doctor records.

Ability to Conceive

Many states have restrictions or special considerations that can apply if a person’s health care directive takes effect while that person is pregnant. If you are or could become pregnant in the future, it might be necessary for you to answer a few more questions to address this possibility.

Additional Information

A few states ask you to provide more biographical information, such as your address or birthdate. If your state does, we will ask you for the additional information, and your documents will contain it, too.