Non-binding living will under the PatVG (Austria)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
A non-binding living will under the Austrian Patient Directives Act (PatVG): for the case that you can no longer decide, you refuse particular treatments — resuscitation, ventilation, artificial feeding, dialysis, life-prolonging antibiotics — and name a person of trust. Doctors must base their finding of your wishes on it (§§ 8, 9 PatVG). A binding living will is made after medical advice before a lawyer, a notary, the patients' advocacy or an adult-protection association; the patients' advocacies, for example in Vienna, Tyrol and Styria, do it free of charge and also offer free forms. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Patient
- Patient's academic degree
- Date of birth
- Patient's address
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
- Artificial ventilation
- Artificial feeding by tube or drip
- Dialysis
- Antibiotics to prolong life
- Other treatment I refuse, and other wishes
- Person of trust (name, phone)
- Doctor
- Date of the medical consultation
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- What is the difference in Austria between a binding and a non-binding living will?
- A binding living will binds the doctors. It requires documented medical advice and is made in writing, dated, before a lawyer, a notary or a legally trained member of the patients' advocacy or of an adult-protection association (§ 6 PatVG); it lasts eight years unless a shorter period is set. Any other living will is non-binding but must be taken into account: your wishes are determined on its basis (§ 8 PatVG), and the closer it comes to a binding one, the more weight it carries (§ 9 PatVG).
- Where in Austria can a binding living will be made free of charge?
- In Vienna the city's care and patients' advocacy (Wiener Pflege-, Patientinnen- und Patientenanwaltschaft) gives the legal instruction free of charge, and so do, for example, the patients' advocacies in Tyrol and Styria; ask the patients' advocacy of your Land. Lawyers and notaries charge a fee. Medical advice is needed as well, for example from your family doctor. With this non-binding directive you can set down your wishes beforehand and take them to those conversations.
- How do doctors in Austria find a living will in an emergency?
- Carry a note saying you have one, and give copies to your person of trust and your family doctor. A notary or lawyer can also register the directive in their profession's living-will register. Where searching for the directive would seriously endanger life or health, emergency treatment may go ahead without it. Review your directive regularly and confirm it with a new date and signature.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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