154.07 Duties and immunities. (1) LIABILITY. (a) No health care professional, inpatient health care facility, or person who is licensed, certified, or registered under ch. 441, 448, or 455 or holds a compact privilege under subch. XI of ch. 448 and who is acting under the direction of a health care professional may be
May 22, 2026, are designated by NOTES. (Published 5-22-26)
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Updated 23-24 Wis. Stats.
held criminally or civilly liable, or charged with unprofessional conduct, for any of the following: 1. Participating in the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or feeding tubes under this subchapter. 2. Failing to act upon a revocation unless the person or facility has actual knowledge of the revocation. 3. Failing to comply with a declaration, except that failure by a health care professional to comply with a declaration of a qualified patient constitutes unprofessional conduct if the health care professional refuses or fails to make a good faith attempt to transfer the qualified patient to another health care professional who will comply with the declaration. (b) 1. No person who acts in good faith as a witness to a declaration under this subchapter may be held civilly or criminally liable for participating in the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or feeding tubes under this subchapter. 2. Subdivision 1. does not apply to a person who acts as a witness in violation of s. 154.03 (1). (c) Pars. (a) and (b) apply to acts or omissions in connection with a provision of a document that is executed in another jurisdiction if the provision is valid and enforceable under s. 154.11 (9). (2) EFFECT OF DECLARATION. The desires of a qualified patient who is competent supersede the effect of the declaration at all times. If a qualified patient is adjudicated incompetent at the time of the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures or feeding tubes, a declaration executed under this subchapter is presumed to be valid. The declaration of a qualified patient who is diagnosed as pregnant by the attending health care professional has no effect during the course of the qualified patient’s pregnancy. For the purposes of this subchapter, a health care professional or inpatient health care facility may presume in the absence of actual notice to the contrary that a person who executed a declaration was of sound mind at the time. History: 1983 a. 202; 1991 a. 84; 1995 a. 200; 2003 a. 290; 2005 a. 387; 2019 a. 90; 2021 a. 23; 2021 a. 240 s. 30; 2025 a. 130.