Minn. Stat. §145C.01 et seq. · Minnesota
Minnesota: how to sign your advance directive
Minnesota folded two documents into one and called it a Health Care Directive. Inside it you name the person who decides for you when you can’t, and you write down what you want done. You can do either, or both. The statute is chapter 145C.
The moment it actually matters
Why a signed directive can still fail
People sign their directive, file it, and stop thinking about it. That works until the afternoon it doesn’t.
A Minnesota directive isn’t in force when you sign it. It takes effect when a provider decides you can no longer make your own decisions — a call made at a bedside, fast, usually by someone who has never met you.
If it isn’t in front of them, they can’t read it.
There’s no special paper to protect, either. A copy works as well as the original, so the page in your file cabinet isn’t worth more than the copy on your phone. It comes down to whether someone can get it to them.
What goes in it
What you can put in a Minnesota advance directive
Part II of Minnesota’s form is where you say what you want done, and what you don’t.
The statute doesn’t hand you a list to pick from. It calls an instruction “a written statement of your values, preferences, guidelines, or directions,” and the examples it gives are “including, but not limited to.” A treatment Minnesota never mentions is still yours to refuse. You write the sentence.
What you can put in it:
- A person to decide for you. Your agent, plus a backup in case the first one isn’t reachable when the call comes.
- Vaccines. Write the refusal into the document and it’s part of what you signed, with the same standing as anything else in it.
- Blood. This one works differently, and it’s worth getting straight. On a WearableDocs record, a blood refusal is a checkbox on your page, read at the bedside. It isn’t part of your signed directive unless you write it there yourself. Refusing vaccines vs refusing blood walks through why they’re handled separately.
- A drug, by name. The statute lists opioid prohibitions as something a directive can carry. It also carves out treating an overdose, dependence, or substance abuse, so be specific about what you’re refusing.
- Tube feeding and IV fluids. Artificially administered nutrition and hydration get their own line in the statute.
- Organ donation. You can give, change, revoke, or refuse. A refusal to donate is a separate instrument riding on the same card — see how that one works in Minnesota.
- Pregnancy. If you’re of child bearing age, the statute lets you say how a pregnancy should affect decisions made for you.
You don’t have to fill in every part. The form says so itself. But the parts you leave blank are the parts nobody can act on.
What Minnesota asks
What you need to sign in Minnesota
- Instruments
- One combined Health Care Directive (ch. 145C). Living wills under ch. 145B still exist separately and are not repealed
- Form
- Illustrative — a form is published, but it is not mandatory
- Execution
- Two witnesses OR a notary
- May not witness
- The agent or the alternate agent may not witness or notarize the directive. At least one of two witnesses must not be a direct-care provider — the notary may be one
- Copy rule
- A copy has the full effect of the original (§145C.10(f))
- Delivery
- No — the directive does not wait on delivery to a clinician to operate. Because a copy is equivalent, the document is not waiting on delivery to operate
- Carried device
- Nothing for the directive — see below
- Citation
- Minn. Stat. §145C.01 et seq.
- Statute read
- 2026-09-18
Minn. Stat. §145C.01 et seq.
The statute itself
Quoted word for word from Minnesota’s enacted code.
What the directive may contain
It can name someone to decide for you, or leave instructions to guide them. Either one alone is enough to make it a directive.
A principal with the capacity to do so may execute a health care directive. A health care directive may include one or more health care instructions to direct health care providers, others assisting with health care, family members, and a health care agent. A health care directive may include a health care power of attorney to appoint a health care agent to make health care decisions for the principal when the principal, in the judgment of the principal's attending physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant, lacks decision-making capacity, unless otherwise specified in the health care directive.
Minn. Stat. §145C.02
What a health care instruction is
An instruction is whatever you write about your own care — your values, your preferences, your directions. Nothing has to match a form.
"Health care instruction" means a written statement of the principal's values, preferences, guidelines, or directions regarding health care.
Minn. Stat. §145C.01, subd. 7a
What makes it legally sufficient
Six requirements. The fifth is the one people get wrong: your signature has to be verified, by a notary or by two witnesses, and you pick which. The agent you named can’t do either.
To be legally sufficient in this state, a health care directive must: (1) be in writing; (2) be dated; (3) state the principal's name; (4) be executed by a principal with capacity to do so with the signature of the principal or with the signature of another person authorized by the principal to sign on behalf of the principal; (5) contain verification of the principal's signature or the signature of the person authorized by the principal to sign on behalf of the principal, either by a notary public or by witnesses as provided under this chapter; and (6) include a health care instruction, a health care power of attorney, or both.
Minn. Stat. §145C.03, subd. 1
When it takes effect
Signing doesn’t turn it on. It takes effect when a provider decides you can no longer make the decision, or when conditions you wrote into it have been met.
A health care directive is effective for a health care decision when: (1) it meets the requirements of section 145C.03, subdivision 1; and (2) the principal, in the determination of the attending physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant of the principal, lacks decision-making capacity to make the health care decision; or if other conditions for effectiveness otherwise specified by the principal have been met.
Minn. Stat. §145C.06
A copy does everything the original does
A copy is as good as the original, whether it’s a scan, a PDF, or a printout. There’s no special paper to protect. What matters is that one reaches the person treating you.
A copy of a health care directive is presumed to be a true and accurate copy of the executed original, absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, and must be given the same effect as an original.
Minn. Stat. §145C.10(f)
Why WearableDocs
In Minnesota, 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.