Cal. Prob. Code § 4670 et seq. · California
California: how to sign your advance directive
In California you sign one Advance Health Care Directive — it can name an agent, give health care instructions, or both. You execute it with two qualified witnesses, or by acknowledgment before a notary.
If you signed it and filed it away
Is a signed directive in a drawer enough in California?
No. California treats a copy of your Advance Health Care Directive as equal to the original — so there is no special paper to protect. What fails people is findability: when you cannot speak, the people treating you have to produce the document in time. A relative who might know which drawer is not a plan.
What goes in it
What you can put in a California advance directive
California’s form is built so you can say, in writing, what care you accept and what you refuse — before anyone has to guess. You may do either or both of naming an agent and writing instructions, and you may complete or change any part of it.
- Name an agent — the person who speaks for you if you cannot, plus alternates. They follow the instructions you leave; they do not invent them under pressure.
- Write the refusals that matter to you — the form lets you give instructions about any aspect of your health care, in your own words. That is where blood refusal, vaccine refusal, and other treatment limits belong: clear sentences a stranger can read when you cannot speak.
- Say what you want about treatment to keep you alive, and about pain relief — including choices the checkboxes already offer, or your own wording beside them.
- Name your primary physician — who has primary responsibility for your care.
- Say what you want about organ donation after death — optional on this form. Leaving that part blank is not a refusal. A signed refusal to donate is a different instrument under California’s anatomical gift act; see Refuse organ donation in California.
You do not have to fill every part. What has to survive the moment you cannot speak is the no you already decided — blood, vaccines, organs, or anything else you put in writing — and a document someone can actually find.
Two of those refusals are answered differently on purpose. A vaccine refusal is a clause inside the document you sign, so it carries the weight of the signed instrument. A blood refusal on a WearableDocs record is a checkbox on the record page, read at the bedside — it is not part of the signed document unless you write it into the document yourself, which this form lets you do. Refusing vaccines vs refusing blood has the full comparison.
What California asks
What you need to sign in California
- Instruments
- One combined Advance Health Care Directive — it can name an agent, give health care instructions, or both, in the same form.
- Form
- Illustrative. The statutory form is published; you may use a different form.
- Execution
- Two qualified witnesses, or acknowledgment before a notary.
- May not witness
- The agent; your health care provider or their employee; operators or employees of community care or residential care facilities for the elderly. At least one witness must also declare they are not related to you and not entitled to your estate.
- Copy rule
- A copy of the form has the same effect as the original.
- Delivery
- No — the directive does not wait on delivery to a clinician to operate. The form still directs you to give copies to your physician, other providers, institutions, and any agent you named.
- Carried device
- None in the statute for the advance directive itself — the copy rule is what matters, and the copy has to be findable.
- Citation
- Cal. Prob. Code § 4670 et seq.
- Statute read
- 2026-09-18
Cal. Prob. Code § 4670 et seq.
The statute itself
Quoted word for word from California’s enacted code.
What the form is for
You can name someone to decide for you, write your own care instructions, or both. You may also name your primary doctor and say what you want about organ donation.
You have the right to give instructions about your own physical and mental health care. You also have the right to name someone else to make those health care decisions for you. This form lets you do either or both of these things. It also lets you express your wishes regarding donation of organs and the designation of your primary physician. If you use this form, you may complete or modify all or any part of it. You are free to use a different form.
Cal. Prob. Code § 4701
Instructions in your own words
The form is not limited to end-of-life checkboxes. You can write what you refuse — blood, vaccines, or any other care — so the people treating you are not left to argue it for you.
Part 2 of this form lets you give specific instructions about any aspect of your health care, whether or not you appoint an agent. Choices are provided for you to express your wishes regarding the provision, withholding, or withdrawal of treatment to keep you alive, as well as the provision of pain relief. Space is also provided for you to add to the choices you have made or for you to write out any additional wishes.
Cal. Prob. Code § 4701
How you sign it
You sign with two qualified witnesses, or you take it to a notary. Either works.
After completing this form, sign and date the form at the end. The form shall be signed by two qualified witnesses or acknowledged before a notary public. Give a copy of the signed and completed form to your physician, to any other health care providers you may have, to any health care institution at which you are receiving care, and to any health care agents you have named.
Cal. Prob. Code § 4701
A copy counts as the original (5.1)
A copy of the signed form works like the original, whether it’s a scan, a PDF, or a printout. There is no special paper to protect. What matters is that one reaches whoever is treating you.
EFFECT OF COPY: A copy of this form has the same effect as the original.
Cal. Prob. Code § 4701
What the popular guides get wrong
Corrections for California
"Two witnesses is all your directive needs." For a patient in a skilled nursing facility, it is not. The statutory form carries a Part 6 that must be signed by a patient advocate or ombudsman designated by the State Department of Aging. Two ordinary witnesses — correctly chosen — do not satisfy it.
Why WearableDocs
In California, the directive has to be found
It does not wait on delivery to a clinician to operate — but a document no one can produce when asked for is a document that fails in practice. WearableDocs puts the signed directive on a card you carry and a page that opens in seconds, instead of a phone call to whoever might know which drawer.
You answer a few questions — your name, your state, and what you refuse — and WearableDocs builds the directive. Print it, sign it, upload it. Changing your answers later is part of the plan, so nothing is locked in.