Will.com / Healthcare directive / North Carolina
NC · Statutory Form Health Care Power of Attorney (§32A-25.1), executable with the §90-321 Advance Directive for a Natural Death (Living Will) as authorized by §90-321(j)
Make your North Carolina healthcare directive.
Tell doctors what care you want and name someone to speak for you if you can't. Legally valid in North Carolina. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
North Carolina healthcare directive requirements
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About your care preferences and who you want making decisions.
- 2
Download your healthcare directive
A complete, personalized document, formatted for North Carolina.
- 3
Sign and share
Sign in front of 2 adult witnesses and a notary. Give a copy to your healthcare agent and your doctor.
What governs a North Carolina directive
North Carolina's healthcare-directive statute is at N.C. Gen. Stat. §32A-15 et seq.. The official form is the Statutory Form Health Care Power of Attorney (§32A-25.1), executable with the §90-321 Advance Directive for a Natural Death (Living Will) as authorized by §90-321(j). Last revised 2026-04. 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.
File your directive with North Carolina
North Carolina operates the North Carolina Advance Health Care Directive Registry (Secretary of State), a database hospitals can search when you arrive unable to speak. Operated by the NC Secretary of State under N.C. Gen. Stat. §130A-465 (Article 21 of Chapter 130A, Advance Health Care Directive Registry; §§130A-465 through 130A-471). Registrants pay a $10 filing fee per document and receive a registration card with a QR code (and a file-number + password fallback) that emergency-room staff can use to retrieve the directive online. Filing is voluntary; failure to register does not affect validity. Documents that may be registered include the HC POA, Living Will / Advance Directive for a Natural Death, the disposition-of-remains designation, and any organ-donation instructions.
North Carolina Advance Health Care Directive Registry (Secretary of State) →
Who can witness your North Carolina directive
Each of us declares under penalty of perjury that we are at least eighteen years of age and that we are NOT (i) related to the principal or the principal's spouse within the third degree by blood, marriage, or adoption, (ii) a person who knows or has a reasonable expectation of being entitled to any portion of the principal's estate under any existing will or codicil, (iii) the principal's attending physician or mental-health-treatment provider, (iv) a licensed health-care provider who is a paid employee of the principal's attending physician or mental-health-treatment provider, a paid employee of a health facility in which the principal is a patient, or a paid employee of a nursing home or adult care home in which the principal resides, or (v) a person with a claim against any portion of the principal's estate at the time of execution of this health care power of attorney. N.C. Gen. Stat. §32A-16(6) imposes these qualified-witness requirements; both witnesses must independently satisfy each.
Recent North Carolina directive law changes
North Carolina extends Emergency Video Notarization authority
SL 2024-47 extends Emergency Video Notarization through July 1, 2025. Note that the permanent Remote Electronic Notary Act (RENA) separately excludes self-proving wills, codicils, and trust documents.
SL 2024-47
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