• In the Autonomous Region of Cantabria, advance directives have been regulated at regional level since 2002: Ley 7/2002, de 10 de diciembre, de Ordenación Sanitaria de Cantabria [Law 7/2002 of December 10^th, concerning Health Regulation in Cantabria] .

• Advance directives in Cantabria can be named as:
  • Instrucciones previas
  • Voluntades previas

• Any individual of legal age who is legally qualified to act in this capacity and acting freely may draw up a written Advance Directives Statement.

• One or more proxies may be appointed to make decisions on behalf of patients when they are incapable of expressing their own wishes.

• Any individual of legal age, who is not legally disqualified, may act as the executor’s proxy. However, the Notary or the civil servant in charge of the Advance Directives Registry of Cantabria before whom the Advance Directives Document was executed are barred from acting as proxies.

• The document can be executed via any of the following procedures:

a) Via a statement made before a notary.

b)Via a statement made before three witnesses, duly signed by the executor and the witnesses

• The advance directives document may be revoked at any time via the same procedure employed for the initial registration of the document. Once registered in the Registry, the document is binding.

• In addition to the National Registry of Advance Directives, Cantabria has created its own registry, a dependency of the Government of Cantabria’s Department for Health. This registry is connected to similar registries in the various Autonomous Regions and the National Registry of Advance Directives.

• As of the 1^st of July 2010, 954 advance directives have been registered in the Autonomous Region of Cantabria (the equivalent of 167,9 healthcare directives per 100,000 inhabitants).