The Region of Murcia is one of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities. The autonomous community consists of a single province (region), unlike most autonomous communities. The city of Murcia is the capital of the Region. It has an area of 11,313 km² and has a population of 1,470.069 inhabitants (INE, 2011), of whom one-third live in the capital.

• In the Autonomous Region of Murcia, advance directives have been regulated at regional level since 2005: Decreto nº 80/2005, de 8 de julio, por el que se aprueba el reglamento de instrucciones previas y su registro [Decree 80/2005, of July 8th, via which the regulations concerning advance directives and the corresponding registry are passed].

• In 2009, Murcia passed Ley 3/2009 de 11 de mayo de los derechos y deberes de los usuarios del Sistema Sanitario de la Región de Murcia [Law 3/2009 of May 11th]

• Any competent person of legal age, who is acting freely and not legally disqualified, may draw up an advance directives document.

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

• Any competent person of legal age, who is acting freely and not legally disqualified, may be assigned as a proxy.

• In order to be valid, the healthcare directives document must be executed via one of the following procedures:

a) Before the civil servant or public employee in charge of the advance directives registry.

b) Before a notary via a notarial deed.

c) Before three witnesses of legal age who are fully qualified to act in this capacity.

• The advance directives document may be revoked, modified or substituted by the executor at any time.

• In addition to the National Registry of Advance Directives, Murcia has created its own registry, a dependency of the Dirección General de Atención al Ciudadano y Drogodependencias.

• As of the 1^st of January 2012, 2.626 advance directives have been registered in the Autonomous Region of Murcia (the equivalent of 178,63 healthcare directives per 100.000 inhabitants).

Advance Directives in the Autonomous Region of Murcia are in keeping with legislation at national level (refer to the report on advance directives in Spain).

The Autonomous Region of Murcia has developed its own legislation with regards to advance directives. In 2005, Murcia passed Decreto nº 80/2005, de 8 de julio, por el que se aprueba el reglamento de instrucciones previas y su registro [Decree 80/2005, of July 8th, via which the regulations concerning advance directives and the corresponding registry are passed]

• In order to be valid, the healthcare directives document must be executed via one of the following procedures:

        a) Before the civil servant or public employee in charge of the advance directives registry.

        b) Before a notary via a notarial deed.

        c)Before three witnesses of legal age who are fully qualified to act in this capacity

• In any event, the advance directives document must be accompanied by certified photocopies of the National Identification Documents (D.N.I.) of the executor and any other persons who appear in the request.

• The document must be presented in the advance directives registry, a dependency of the Dirección General de Atención al Ciudadano y Drogodependecias. The document may be presented in person or sent to this institution via mail. Alternatively, the advance directives document may be presented in the Health Centre in which the executor is receiving treatment. In this case, where requested by the executor, the document will be forwarded to the advance directives registry in order to be registered.

• Registry of advance directives of Murcia

Calle Pinares, 6, 1º Izqda, 30001 Murcia.

Teléfonos: 968 36 66 26 / 968 36 54 71

Fax: 968 36 59 17

For more information there is a Guide for the Document of Advance Directives that can be consulted clicking here.

The Dirección General de Atención al Cuidadano y Drogodependencias provides an optional model for requesting registration of advance directives to facilitate this process for citizens, and an optional model for the advance directives document that can be downloaded here.