Living Wills in Missouri

A living will, called a health care declaration in Missouri, puts your end-of-life treatment wishes in writing. It spares your family from guessing what you would want during an already difficult time.

What a Missouri Living Will Covers

Under RSMo 459.010 and following, a declaration directs your doctors to withhold or withdraw procedures that would only artificially prolong the dying process when your condition is terminal. It does not cover comfort care or pain medication, and under the statute it does not reach artificially supplied nutrition and hydration.

Signing Requirements

The declaration must be in writing, signed and dated by you. Unless it is entirely in your handwriting, it must be signed in front of two adult witnesses.

Living Will Plus Health Care Power of Attorney

Because a statutory living will is narrow, we usually pair it with a health care power of attorney. Your agent can then make the decisions a living will doesn’t reach, including decisions about tube feeding if you grant that authority.