New Mexico: Living Will and Advance Health-Care Instruction Requirements
The short answer
New Mexico's Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act lets an adult with capacity give an individual instruction orally by personally informing a health-care provider or in writing, including an instruction that takes effect only on a specified condition. The optional combined form is signed and dated, but its two witnesses are expressly recommended rather than required, and the Act imposes no notarization requirement for treatment instructions. Unless the writing provides another test, two qualified health-care professionals, including the primary care practitioner, determine incapacity or another activating condition; the form separately addresses life prolongation, artificial nutrition, artificial hydration, and pain relief, and the Act has no pregnancy-specific override.
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This is the general rule in New Mexico. Ezel applies current New Mexico law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and document | New Mexico Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 24-7A-1–18. 'Advance health-care directive' is an individual instruction or health-care POA made with capacity (§ 24-7A-1). Section 24-7A-4 supplies an optional combined form whose Part 2 is treatment instructions; any part may be completed or modified and a different form may be used |
|---|---|
| Who may make an instruction | Adult or emancipated minor while having capacity may give instruction; this page covers adults (§§ 24-7A-1, -2(A)). Capacity is presumed, and refusing recommended treatment alone does not establish incapacity (§ 24-7A-11) |
| Oral, written, and signature form | Instruction may be oral or written and conditioned on specified event; oral route requires personally informing health-care provider (§ 24-7A-2(A)). Section states no signature/date rule for instruction alone. Optional form tells signer to sign and date; no directed-signature or electronic-specific route appears (§ 24-7A-4) |
| Witness, notary, and disqualifications | No witness or notary required for individual instruction. Optional form says 2 witness signatures are 'recommended but not required' and labels them optional (§ 24-7A-4); Act states no witness-disqualification list. Do not import signed-writing requirement for health-care-POA portion (§ 24-7A-2(B)) |
| Covered conditions and trigger | Instruction may set its own condition. Unless written directive says otherwise, 2 qualified health-care professionals, including primary care practitioner, determine incapacity/recovery or another condition affecting instruction (§ 24-7A-11(C)). Optional form operates when unable to make/communicate plus incurable/irreversible near-term-death condition, unconsciousness with no expected recovery to reasonable medical certainty, or risks/burdens outweigh expected benefits (§ 24-7A-4) |
| Treatment, nutrition, hydration, and comfort | Health-care decision includes life-support termination and separate provision/withholding/withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration (§ 24-7A-1(G)). Optional form chooses no prolongation, prolongation within accepted standards, or agent decision; if no-prolongation chosen, nutrition and hydration each have yes/no selections, with comfort exception for hydration; best comfort/pain care remains even if it hastens death (§ 24-7A-4) |
| Pregnancy and other statutory limits | UHCDA §§ 24-7A-1–18 state no pregnancy-specific suspension, viability, or live-birth test. Act itself does not authorize mercy killing, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or care prohibited elsewhere and does not require care contrary to generally accepted standards (§ 24-7A-13(C)–(D)) |
| Revocation, notice, and registry | While having capacity, revoke any non-agent part anytime/in any manner communicating intent; later conflict revokes earlier directive to extent of conflict (§ 24-7A-3(B), (E)). Informed provider/agent/guardian/surrogate promptly tells supervising practitioner and treating institution; practitioner records it (§§ 24-7A-3(C), -7(B)). No state directive registry appears in Act |
| Provider duties, recognition, and effect | Practitioner/institution must comply before and after incapacity, subject to conscience, timely communicated institutional policy, medically ineffective care, or accepted standards; refusal requires notice, continuing care, and reasonable transfer efforts (§ 24-7A-7). Good-faith immunity (§ 24-7A-9). Foreign directive valid if compliant where made; copy equals original (§§ 24-7A-12, -16) |
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New Mexico uses the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act. Under
§ 24-7A-1, an advance health-care directive may be an adult's own individual
instruction, a health-care power of attorney, or both. The optional combined
form's Part 2 contains treatment instructions; this page does not cover Part 1's
agent appointment.
Requirements one by one
Oral instructions go directly to a provider
An adult with capacity may give an oral or written individual instruction under
§ 24-7A-2(A). An oral instruction must be made by personally informing a
health-care provider. Either form may state that it takes effect only if a
specified condition arises.
The instruction-only subsection states no signature, date, witness, or notary
requirement. The optional § 24-7A-4 form tells the signer to sign and date it,
but says two witnesses are “recommended but not required” and labels their
signatures optional. The Act imposes no notarial acknowledgment requirement.
The instruction can choose its trigger
Unless a written directive says otherwise, § 24-7A-11(C) requires two
qualified health-care professionals, one the primary care practitioner, to
determine incapacity, recovery, or another condition affecting the instruction.
The Act preserves the capable person's right to decide and presumes capacity.
The optional form applies its end-of-life choices when the signer cannot make or
communicate decisions and one of three circumstances exists: an incurable or
irreversible condition causing death relatively soon, unconsciousness with no
expected recovery to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, or treatment
whose likely risks and burdens outweigh expected benefits (§ 24-7A-4).
Nutrition, hydration, and pain are separate choices
The form lets the signer choose not to prolong life, to prolong life within
generally accepted standards, or to let an appointed agent decide. If the signer
chooses no prolongation, artificial nutrition and artificial hydration each have
separate yes-or-no selections. The no-hydration choice preserves hydration
required for comfort.
The pain provision directs the best care possible for cleanliness, comfort,
dignity, and freedom from pain or discomfort, even if that care hastens death,
unless the signer writes otherwise (§ 24-7A-4).
What trips people up
- Witnesses are optional, not one of two mandatory execution routes. The
optional form recommends two witnesses but does not require them, and the Act
does not substitute notarization as a required alternative (§ 24-7A-4). - The UHCDA has no pregnancy override. The complete §§ 24-7A-1–18 state
no pregnancy suspension, viability test, or live-birth rule. § 24-7A-13
instead limits what the UHCDA itself authorizes and preserves generally
accepted health-care standards. - Capacity is required to revoke the treatment instructions. Under
§ 24-7A-3(B), a person with capacity may revoke a non-agent part at any
time and in any manner communicating intent. Someone informed of revocation
must promptly tell the supervising practitioner and treating institution, and
§ 24-7A-7(B) requires record notation.
Common questions
Must a written New Mexico treatment instruction be witnessed or notarized?
No. The optional form expressly makes witnesses optional, and the Act states no
notary requirement for an individual instruction (§§ 24-7A-2(A), 24-7A-4).
Can I give the instruction orally?
Yes, while having capacity, by personally informing a health-care provider
(§ 24-7A-2(A)).
Can I make separate choices about artificial nutrition and hydration?
Yes. The optional form separates artificial nutrition from artificial hydration
and preserves hydration required for comfort in the no-hydration choice
(§ 24-7A-4).
Will New Mexico recognize a living will signed elsewhere?
Yes. A similar directive valid under the other state or jurisdiction's law is
valid and enforceable in New Mexico to the same extent as a New Mexico directive
(§ 24-7A-16(C)).
Statutes and sources
- NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-1 — directive, capacity, treatment, artificial feeding,
and individual-instruction definitions. NMOneSource Chapter 24 (accessed
2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-2(A) — oral or written instruction and specified
conditions. Same official source (accessed 2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-3 — capacity-limited revocation and communication. Same
source (accessed 2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-4 — optional form, optional witnesses, medical triggers,
treatment, nutrition, hydration, and pain choices. Same source (accessed
2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-7 — recordkeeping, compliance, refusal, and transfer.
Same source (accessed 2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 §§ 24-7A-9 and 24-7A-11 — immunity, capacity, and two-professional
determinations. Same source (accessed 2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 §§ 24-7A-12 and 24-7A-13 — copy effect and statutory limits.
Same source (accessed 2026-07-31). - NMSA 1978 § 24-7A-16 — validity regardless of place and foreign-document
recognition. Same source (accessed 2026-07-31).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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