Advance Health Care Directives
Section 24-7A-5 — with no agent or guardian, a surrogate decides, from spouse down to grandparent
An adult or emancipated minor with capacity may give an individual health care instruction, orally to a health care provider or in writing, and may sign a written power of attorney for health care naming an agent to make any decision they could have made.
Who handles this in New Mexico: Disability Rights New Mexico and Senior Citizens' Law Office; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the New Mexico directory.
When a patient lacks capacity and no agent or guardian is reasonably available, a surrogate the patient designated decides, or else the first reasonably available of these, in order.
- The spouse, unless legally separated or with a divorce or separation petition pending.
- A partner in a long term relationship with a commitment like a spouse's.
- An adult child.
- A parent.
- An adult brother or sister.
- A grandparent.
A person with capacity may revoke an agent's designation by a signed writing or by telling the supervising provider, and may revoke the rest of a directive at any time in any manner that communicates the intent.
Sources for this section (3)
- NMSA 1978, § 24-7A-2 — Advance health-care directives
- NMSA 1978, § 24-7A-3 — Revocation of advance health-care directive
- NMSA 1978, § 24-7A-5 — Decisions by surrogate
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of November 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed New Mexico attorney.