• 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).