North Dakota Code 23-06.5-05 – Health care directive requirements – Execution and witnesses
1. To be legally sufficient in this state, a health care directive must:
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 23-06.5-05
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Verified: means sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths. See North Dakota Code 1-01-42
- written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37
a. Be in writing; b. Be dated; c. State the principal’s name; d. Be executed by a principal with capacity to do so with the signature of the principal or with the signature of another person authorized by the principal to sign on behalf of the principal; e. Contain verification of the principal’s signature or the signature of the person authorized by the principal to sign on behalf of the principal, either by a notary public or by witnesses as provided under this chapter; and
f. Include a health care instruction or a power of attorney for health care, or both.
2. A health care directive must be signed by the principal and that signature must be verified by a notary public or at least two or more subscribing witnesses who are at least eighteen years of age. A person notarizing the document may be an employee of a health care or long-term care provider providing direct care to the principal. At least one witness to the execution of the document must not be a health care or long-term care provider providing direct care to the principal or an employee of a health care or long-term care provider providing direct care to the principal on the date of execution. The notary public or any witness may not be, at the time of execution, the agent, the principal’s spouse or heir, a person related to the principal by blood, marriage, or adoption, a person entitled to any part of the estate of the principal upon the death of the principal under a will or deed in existence or by operation of law, any other person who has, at the time of execution, any claims against the estate of the principal, a person directly financially responsible for the principal’s medical care, or the attending physician of the principal. If the principal is physically unable to sign, the directive may be signed by the principal’s name being written by some other person in the principal’s presence and at the principal’s express direction.