Medical Power of Attorney in Rhode Island

Rhode Island uses a durable power of attorney for health care. An adult (18+) may use the statutory form, which must be signed and dated and either witnessed by two qualified adult witnesses or acknowledged before one notary. The named agent, health care providers and their employees, and operators and employees of community care facilities may not be witnesses, and at least one witness (or the notary) must not be a relative or heir of the principal.

Health care power of attorney: an adult resident (18+) may use the statutory Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care form, signed and dated and witnessed by two qualified adult witnesses or one notary. The agent, health care providers and their employees, and community care facility operators and employees may not be witnesses, and at least one witness (or the notary) must not be a relative or heir. Living will: a competent adult may sign a declaration about life-sustaining procedures in front of two witnesses who are not related by blood or marriage; a statutory form is provided but optional.

Rhode Island's living will is a 'declaration' under the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. A competent adult may sign a declaration about the use of life-sustaining procedures in the presence of two witnesses who are not related to the declarant by blood or marriage. A statutory form is provided in the law, but using it is optional.

Rhode Island has a "Statutory Short Form Power of Attorney" for financial matters (R.I. Gen. Laws 18-16-2). It must be in writing and the principal's signature must be acknowledged in the same manner as a deed of real property; powers the principal does not want to grant are struck through and initialed. For health care, the statute sets out the "Statutory Form Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care" (R.I. Gen. Laws 23-4.10-2), which is not valid unless signed by a notary public or by two qualified witnesses who are present when the principal signs or acknowledges the signature. The named agent or alternate agent, a health care provider or its employee, and the operator of a community care facility or its employee may not serve as witnesses.