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No one to ask? You can still name someone.

One day you may be too sick to speak. Then someone has to tell the doctors what you want. That person does not have to be family.

It can be a friend. A neighbor. Someone from your church, mosque, temple or other faith group. Anyone you trust to say what you would say, even if it is hard.

How to choose

  1. Think of someone who will be calm, and who will speak up for you.
  2. Ask them. Say: “If I can’t speak for myself, would you speak for me?”
  3. Do the cards with them, on one phone. Or do them alone, then send them the guessing link from your Care Wishes page. They tap what they think you chose, and their phone shows where you match.
  4. Put their name on paper the way your state’s law says (below).

Do the cards

What Colorado law says

These are the law’s own words, made shorter. Each line links to the law it comes from, as published in the 2025 Colorado Revised Statutes.

In Colorado, you can write down who decides for you in a paper called a medical durable power of attorney. The law calls that person your agent. C.R.S. 15-14-506(1)

If you can no longer decide, your agent can say yes or no to treatment for you. They have the same power to decide that you would have. C.R.S. 15-14-506(3)

Your agent must follow what you wrote and the wishes they know. If they do not know your wishes, they must do what they think is best for you. That is why the cards matter. C.R.S. 15-14-506(2)

Naming an agent does not take away your rights. You can take back their power, and no agent can say yes or no to treatment for you if you object. C.R.S. 15-14-506(4)(a)

If no one is named

If you cannot decide and you have not named anyone, the doctor tries to find people the law calls “interested persons.” They are your spouse, a parent, an adult child, a brother or sister, a grandchild, or a close friend. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(1), (1.5)(a) and (3)

Those people try to agree on one of them to decide. It should be the person who is close to you and most likely to know your wishes. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(4)(a)

If they cannot agree, any of them can ask a court to name a guardian. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(4)(a)

If the doctor cannot find anyone, or no one is willing, the doctor can ask another willing doctor to decide for you. Before that, another doctor, a nurse working with a doctor, or a court must also find that you cannot decide, and the hospital’s ethics committee must agree. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(4)(c)(I)

Even then, when a doctor is the one deciding, holding back or stopping treatment that no longer helps at the end of life needs a second doctor’s opinion and the ethics committee’s agreement. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(4)(c)(V)(C)

Why name someone yourself. If you choose, you pick who speaks for you, and you can tell them what you want now.

The steps for “interested persons” are for when no agent has been named in a medical durable power of attorney. If you name a friend as your agent in a medical durable power of attorney, these steps do not apply: your agent speaks for you, without waiting for others to agree. C.R.S. 15-18.5-103(1)

That last point is our plain reading of the law, not legal advice.

Signing it

The law text above does not list the signing steps. Ask a lawyer, or the hospital, how to sign a medical durable power of attorney in Colorado. Your state’s own form is at CaringInfo. How CareGoals works with lawyers.

Not in Colorado? Every state has its own rules. A lawyer or the hospital explains your state.

What CareGoals is

CareGoals helps you write down your wishes and practice them with the person you choose. It is a Care Wishes document, not a legal form. CareGoals gives no legal advice, has no account, and keeps what you tap only on your own device.

In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988, any time.