Make your Iowa healthcare directive.

How it works

1. 1

   Answer a few questions

   About your care preferences and who you want making decisions.

2. 2

   Download your healthcare directive

   A complete, personalized document, formatted for Iowa.

3. 3

   Sign and share

   Sign with Either two qualified witnesses OR notarial acknowledgment. Both Iowa Code §144A.3(2) (Living Will declaration) and §144B.3(1)(b) (Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care) use the same disjunctive structure: the instrument must be 'witnessed or acknowledged by one of the following methods': (a)/(1) two witnesses meeting the §144A.3(2)(a) / §144B.3(2)-(3) qualifications, OR (b)/(2) acknowledged before a notarial officer as provided in chapter 9B. Notarization is a full substitute for witnesses.. Give a copy to your healthcare agent and your doctor.

What governs a Iowa directive

Iowa's healthcare-directive statute is at Iowa Code §144B.1-144B.12 (Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care); Iowa Code §144A.1-144A.12 (Life-Sustaining Procedures Act, governing the Living Will portion of this Healthcare Directive). The official form is the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. 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.

Who can witness your Iowa directive

Iowa Code §144B.3(2): a witness to the durable power of attorney for health care may not be a health care provider attending the principal on the date of execution, an employee of a health care provider attending the principal on the date of execution, the individual designated as attorney in fact, or a person under eighteen. Iowa Code §144A.3(2)(a) applies the same provider, provider-employee, and age bars to the living will declaration, which names no agent to exclude. Under §144B.3(3) and §144A.3(2)(a), at least one of the two witnesses must be an individual who is not a relative of the principal by blood, marriage, or adoption within the third degree of consanguinity; a relative within that degree may serve as the other witness. Neither section disqualifies a witness who is entitled to a portion of the principal's estate. Both sections require the two witnesses to be present together with the principal when the document is signed, so serial witnessing does not satisfy either, and both allow acknowledgment before a notarial officer within Iowa as an alternative to witnesses.