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MA · Health Care Proxy
Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Requirements at a glance
What governs a Massachusetts directive
Massachusetts's healthcare-directive statute is at Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 201D §1 et seq. The official form is the Health Care Proxy. 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 Massachusetts directive
Each of us further affirms that the Principal appeared to us to be at least eighteen years of age, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence, and that neither of us is the health care agent named in this Health Care Proxy (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 201D, §2). Section 2 bars only the named health care agent from witnessing; neither of us is the alternate agent either, which this form asks of each witness as a matter of practice. The chapter's separate eligibility rule restricts who may serve as agent, not who may witness (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 201D, §3).
Recent Massachusetts directive law changes
Massachusetts permanent RON takes effect, but excludes wills and trusts
Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023 permanently authorizes remote online notarization, but wills, trusts, and documents related to court proceedings remain excluded and still require in-person notarization.
Ch. 2, Acts of 2023
Document generation isn’t currently available in Massachusetts.