Norway is a country in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. At 385,155 km². As of 2007, Norway's population numbered 4.7 million.

A complete description of the Health Care System in Norway available online at:

World Health Organization - Regional Office for Europe

Advance Directives in Norway are not judicially regulated and are not legally binding.

Living Wills in Norwegian are named Livstestament.

Associations like the mitt livstestamente organisation provide assistance with AD procedure and completion. The presence of independent witnesses is required when filling in an AD thought this organization.

One important new adventure on this scene within the norwegian context is that nowadays there are guidelines for decisions about limitating medical treatment.

This has been a joint adventure by the Norwegian Medical Association, Section for medical ethics and the health authorities. One paragraph in these guidelines concerns advanced directives and proxy consent. It states that these are not legally binding, but that the responsible doctor shall include the patient's and proxy's preferences as an important part of the medio-ethical decisionmaking.

In many ways it states the existing norwegian policy within this area.

Currently, there is no specific regulation of advance directives in Norway.

There is an independent organisation issuing living wills according to a specific formula. Approximately 4000 Norwegians have this kind of will. However nothing is said about its bindingness, and according to medical practice as well as law, it is up to the doctor in cooperation with other health care personell to consider the validity and relevance of the will and to decide upon the medical treatment.

The proxy cannot issue any binding decisions which in any way restricts the decisionmaking of the medical doctor and personnel. However, it should be taken into account as any other information relevant to medical decisionmaking in the actual case of patient care.

No registry of ADs exists. As a result, it is impossible to know whether some people have already completed them, whether before a notary or by another method.

600 of dying patients per year have issued a living will from the organisation Right to death with dignity. “A total of 23% of the physicians had seen patients with written advance directives” (Førde et al. 2002)

There is no official form to complete an advance directive in Norway.