Nevada Living Will Form

What a Living Will Does in Nevada

A living will — formally called a Declaration Governing the Withholding or Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment — lets your parent put in writing what medical treatments they want or don't want when they can no longer speak for themselves. It becomes operative when the declaration is communicated to the attending physician or attending advanced practice registered nurse and that provider determines that the parent has a terminal condition and is no longer able to make decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment.

This is a values document, not a decision-making authorization. It tells doctors what treatments the parent would refuse (CPR, ventilators, feeding tubes) but it doesn't designate anyone to make real-time medical decisions. For that, you need a separate healthcare power of attorney.

Most families in Nevada execute both as a combined advance directive package.

How to Complete the Form

Nevada's living will form is a statutory template — you don't need an attorney to prepare it. The form addresses specific treatment preferences:

• Whether to use life-sustaining treatment if the parent is terminally ill and death is expected regardless of treatment
• Whether to provide artificial nutrition and hydration (feeding tubes and IV fluids)
• Whether to continue treatment if the parent is in a persistent vegetative state

Your parent fills in their choices, signs the document, and has it attested by two witnesses.

The Living Will Lockbox

Nevada operates a free advance directive registry through the Secretary of State's office called the Living Will Lockbox. Once your parent's living will (and ideally their healthcare POA) is registered, any authorized healthcare provider in the state can retrieve it instantly during a medical emergency.

To register:

1. Download the Registration Agreement from the Secretary of State's website
2. Sign the agreement as instructed on the form
3. Attach a legible copy of the executed living will and any healthcare POA
4. Mail or fax to the Secretary of State's office

Processing takes approximately 30 to 45 days. After registration, the Secretary of State mails a wallet-sized card with a unique registration ID and password. Your parent should carry this card; you should keep a copy with your own records.

There's no fee for registration or retrieval. The Lockbox is a state-funded service specifically designed to prevent the problem of a paramedic or ER doctor having no access to a patient's advance directive during a crisis.

How the Living Will Interacts With Other Documents

A living will works best as part of a layered advance directive framework:

Living will → Documents the parent's values about life-sustaining treatment, becoming operative when communicated to the attending physician or APRN and that provider determines the parent has a terminal condition and can no longer make life-sustaining treatment decisions.

Healthcare power of attorney → Names an agent to make all medical decisions, covering situations the living will doesn't anticipate. The agent steps in whenever the parent can't communicate, not just in terminal or vegetative scenarios.

POLST (Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment) → A physician-signed medical order that emergency responders follow immediately. The POLST converts the parent's wishes into actionable orders for situations where there's no time to consult documents or agents.

The living will sets the philosophical foundation, the healthcare POA puts a decision-maker in charge, and the POLST ensures those decisions are followed at the scene.

When to Update a Living Will

Review your parent's living will whenever their medical situation changes significantly — a new diagnosis, a hospitalization, a shift from independent living to assisted living. A living will written when your parent was healthy and active may not reflect their preferences after a stroke or dementia diagnosis.

Nevada's dementia-specific healthcare POA form (NRS 162A.870) addresses treatment preferences during progressive cognitive decline with more precision than the standard living will. If your parent has been diagnosed with any form of dementia, adding the NRS 162A.870 form to their advance directive package provides an additional layer of documented preferences.

Getting Started

If you're helping a parent set up advance directives in Nevada, the healthcare POA and living will should be executed together in the same session — same notary, same witnesses, same mailing to the Lockbox. The Nevada Power of Attorney & Guardianship Kit includes both statutory forms along with the Lockbox registration instructions and the care-facility competency certification template for parents currently in hospitals or nursing homes.

See more Nevada guides →