Living Will: Your Wishes for the End-of-Life Phase
Legally reviewed by Advokat Pål Minde (Advokatfirma Sørskår), who works in arverett and familierett.
Living Will: Your Wishes for the End-of-Life Phase
It's a conversation most families never have. What do you want if, one day, you're in a hospital unable to speak for yourself? What kind of treatment do you want—and for how long?
It's a conversation most families never have. What do you want if, one day, you're in a hospital unable to speak for yourself? What kind of treatment do you want—and for how long?
Healthcare professionals face these questions daily. Relatives are asked to answer them during one of life's most difficult times, often without knowing what you would genuinely have wanted. And you—the only one who truly knows—may never have voiced it.
A living will (livstestament) is a way to state it calmly, while you still can. It is not a legal document in the same way as a last will and testament or an enduring power of attorney (fremtidsfullmakt). However, it guides healthcare professionals and is a gift to those who care for you.
What a Living Will is—and isn't
A living will (also called an "advance directive") is a written declaration in which you, while fully competent, express your wishes regarding medical treatment you desire—or do not desire—in a situation where you can no longer express them yourself.
It typically concerns the end-of-life phase: serious illness with no prospect of recovery, persistent unconsciousness, advanced dementia combined with severe somatic illness. It can also express your wishes regarding pain relief, where you prefer to be (home, hospital, hospice), and whether you desire spiritual care.
A living will is not the same as assisted suicide—which is prohibited in Norway. It concerns something else: your right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.
Your Legal Right: Pasient- og brukerrettighetsloven § 4-9
Norwegian law explicitly grants you the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Pasient- og brukerrettighetsloven (the Patients' and Users' Rights Act) § 4-9 states that a dying patient has the right to oppose life-prolonging treatment, and that a patient may—due to deeply held convictions—refuse to receive blood or blood products, or refuse the interruption of an ongoing hunger strike.
Healthcare professionals must respect such a refusal—provided it is voluntary, informed, and given while you have decision-making capacity. A living will is the way you ensure this refusal is still heard, even when you can no longer voice it yourself. When you lack decision-making capacity, healthcare professionals must base decisions on what you would have wanted—and a clear, written declaration is the strongest evidence of that they can be given.
Unlike a will and an enduring power of attorney, a living will has no formal legal requirements in Norwegian law. It does not require witnesses or a notary. However, the clearer, more dated, and more thoroughly considered it is, the stronger it stands in an acute situation.
What it is Wise to Consider
A good living will is specific enough for healthcare professionals to understand what you actually want. Some questions worth considering include:
- In what situations should it take effect? (Example: "in the event of a serious, incurable illness with no prospect of recovery, where I cannot express my wishes myself.")
- Do you want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if your heart stops in such a situation?
- Do you want respirator treatment?
- Do you want artificial nutrition and hydration when natural intake is no longer possible?
- Do you want antibiotics for opportunistic infections?
- How do you weigh pain relief against consciousness? (Many wish for maximum pain relief even if it might somewhat shorten life—palliative sedation of the dying, under the Norwegian Medical Association's guidelines, is lawful in Norway.)
- Where do you wish to spend your final time? Home, hospital, nursing home, hospice?
- Do you wish for spiritual care, and from which tradition?
It is also wise to write why you think as you do. Reasons make it easier for healthcare professionals and relatives to interpret your wishes in situations you have not foreseen.
Organ Donation—A Separate Choice
A living will is a natural place to state whether you wish or do not wish to be an organ donor. In Norway, the most important step is that your closest relatives know your decision—they will be asked. Fill in a donor card (available digitally via the Organdonasjon foundation, organdonasjon.no), state your decision in your living will, and above all: talk about it.
Who Needs to Know About It?
A living will tucked away in a drawer helps no one. For it to be respected, it must be accessible at the moment it is needed. We recommend that:
- Your GP (fastlege) receives a copy to be filed in your medical record.
- Your closest relatives are aware of it, and ideally have seen it.
- If you have written an enduring power of attorney (fremtidsfullmakt), your fullmektig should know about the living will, even though they are legally distinct documents (a fullmektig cannot make medical treatment decisions for you, but can convey your wishes).
- It is stored somewhere easy to find in an acute situation—for example, digitally in a vault with other important documents.
The Norwegian Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet) has a national guideline on decision-making processes for limiting life-prolonging treatment, which instructs healthcare professionals to attach weight to the patient's previously expressed wishes. A clear, dated living will provides them with the foundation they need to act in accordance with your desires.
When Should You Update It?
Attitudes towards treatment can change. What seemed obvious in your fifties might look different in your seventies. Review your living will regularly—for example, along with your will and enduring power of attorney once a year—and add a new date if it still applies, or rewrite it if it no longer does. The most recent, dated living will is what counts.
Why record your living will with MemWall
A living will is worth nothing if the hospital cannot see it in time. Most living wills fail not because they are legally weak, but because they sit in a folder at home while decisions are being made in an emergency room.
Guided wizard grounded in your country's rules. MemWall helps you state your wishes clearly — life-sustaining treatment, resuscitation, pain relief, organ donation — in language clinicians recognise.
Instantly accessible to the people who need it. Your named healthcare proxy and next of kin are given access the moment it is needed, from any device, without hunting for paperwork.
Blockchain-anchored so no one can question its authenticity. The sealed document carries a timestamp that proves exactly when you expressed these wishes and that they have not been changed since.
Video message in your own voice. Record yourself explaining your values and your choices. For a family being asked to make an impossible decision, hearing you speak is the difference between doubt and peace.
Encrypted and private. Only the people you designate can ever see it, and only when the conditions you set are met.
Free to create. Pay only when you seal. Write it, revise it, share a preview with your doctor or family. Payment only happens when you choose to lock and timestamp the final version.
Legal Disclaimer: This article provides information, not legal or medical advice. In the event of serious illness, you should consult your GP about how best to convey your wishes to treating healthcare professionals. Assisted suicide is prohibited in Norway—this article concerns the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, not assisted suicide.