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CO · Medical Durable Power of Attorney
Colorado healthcare directive requirements.
Tell doctors what care you want and name someone to speak for you if you can't. Document generation isn’t currently available in Colorado while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Requirements at a glance
What governs a Colorado directive
Colorado's healthcare-directive statute is at Colo. Rev. Stat. §15-14-506 (MDPOA); §§15-18-101 et seq. (Declaration as to Medical Treatment / living will); §15-18.7-101 et seq. (MOST, separate document). The document is called a Medical Durable Power of Attorney. Your directive is valid the moment it's signed under your state's witness and notary rules above; it only takes effect if your physician determines you can't make or communicate decisions yourself.
Witness rules for your Colorado directive
Colorado's witness bar comes from the Declaration as to Medical Treatment (the living will) and not from the medical durable power of attorney, which C.R.S. §15-14-506 lets the principal execute with no witness requirement of its own. Under §15-18-106(1) the declaration must be signed by the declarant in the presence of two witnesses, or signed and acknowledged before a notary public or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, and §15-18-106(2) provides that the persons specified in §15-18-105 may not serve as a witness, notary public, or other officer taking acknowledgment. The §15-18-105 list comprises: (a) the attending physician or any other physician; (b) an employee of the attending physician or the health-care facility in which the declarant is a patient; (c) any person with a claim against the declarant's estate at the time of signing; and (d) any person who knows or believes he or she is entitled to a portion of the declarant's estate as a beneficiary under an existing will or as an heir at law. Each witness must satisfy that bar independently. A relative who is neither an heir at law nor a beneficiary under an existing will is not disqualified by relationship alone, but using two fully disinterested adults remains sound practice.
Document generation isn’t currently available in Colorado.