Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act (UHCDA) is a uniform act drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1993. This act consolidates various state laws dealing with all decisions about adult health care and health-care powers of attorney. This act supersedes the Uniform Health-Care Consent Act and the Uniform Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. It aims at assisting individuals and the medical profession in better assuring a person's right to choose or reject a particular course of treatment. This act is designed to replace existing living will, power of attorney for health care and family health-care consent statutes which are dealt with separately in most states.
UHCDA also provides a form for executing a health-care power of attorney, for written instructions to a health-care provider, and even for making anatomical gifts. The form is optional, but helps to ease document preparation. A health-care power of attorney requires only a signed writing that indicates intent to appoint someone as an agent. Witnesses or other formalities are not required. Another important provision of UHCDA is that it assures the validity of any advance health-care directive that complies with it, regardless of when or where executed or communicated.
The act has been adopted by many states in the U.S like Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Wyoming and Kansas.