Free Maryland Living Will

In Maryland, the living will is the Maryland Advance Directive: Planning for Future Health Care Decisions (Part II: Treatment Preferences ("Living Will")), a written instruction that is valid with no agent named.

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Any competent individual may, at any time, make a written or electronic advance directive regarding the provision of health care to that individual, or the withholding or withdrawal of health care from that individual. may make a maryland advance directive: planning for future health care decisions (part ii: treatment preferences ("living will")) in Maryland.

Your State*

The state whose law the document is prepared under. In Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Oregon, treatment instructions are part of the healthcare power of attorney; those state pages lead there.

First Name*

Middle Name

Last Name*

Date of Birth(MM/DD/YYYY)*

The Maryland form prints your date of birth under your name.

Email Address*

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Yes. Maryland prints the form in the statute. The document prepared here is that form text with your entries in its blanks and your choices marked where the form has you initial them; the agent parts are omitted.

The declarant signs it in the presence of 2 adult witnesses; no notary is required. A declarant who cannot sign may have another adult sign at the declarant's direction and in the declarant's presence.

When you can no longer make your own treatment decisions and your condition is one the statute names: Terminal condition; Persistent vegetative state; End-stage condition, as certified by your attending physician and one other physician. Maryland defines each term in the statute, and the document prints the definitions it uses.

Yes. Maryland lets the declaration direct that artificially provided nutrition and hydration be withheld or withdrawn.

Maryland recognizes these ways to revoke it: by a signed and dated written or electronic document; by physical cancellation or destruction; by an oral statement to a health care practitioner; by the execution of a subsequent directive.

The Living Will in Maryland

Maryland writes the living will into its advance-directive statute, where a written instruction that names no agent is itself a directive. The document is the Maryland Advance Directive: Planning for Future Health Care Decisions (Part II: Treatment Preferences ("Living Will")) with the instruction part completed and the agent part left to the healthcare power of attorney.

Maryland prints the form in the statute; in the statute's words, “Using this advance directive form to do health care planning is completely optional. Other forms are also valid in Maryland”. The document reproduces the form's text with the entries in its blanks and the elections marked where the form has the declarant initial them.

Maryland names the conditions in which the declaration operates: Terminal condition; Persistent vegetative state; End-stage condition. Two physicians, the attending physician and one other, certify the condition before the declaration takes effect. It applies only once the declarant can no longer make treatment decisions.

Signing in Maryland takes the declarant's signature before 2 adult witnesses; no notary is involved. Another adult may sign for a declarant who cannot, at the declarant's direction and in the declarant's presence.

A signed declaration may be filed with Electronic advance directives service recognized by the Maryland Health Care Commission (MyDirectives, connected to the State-designated health information exchange, CRISP), the registry Maryland recognizes for advance directives.

Legal Sources

(6)·Updated September 28, 2026

SimplyTrust Editorial

Data sourced from Maryland statutes and official state code. How we research.

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The Living Will in Maryland

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