My MIL was just in the hospital for something scary that we didn’t know if she was going to make it out of or not. Upon her wishes, she didn’t want life support treatment. Her husband had to have two witnesses unrelated to them sign the document. Why do they have to sign when they are unrelated? Why does this have to be signed by anyone else at all?
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Given that a living will is somewhat of an oxymoron – it governs when and how the hospital should let you die – it is _very_ important that the document is authentic and put forward by someone of sound mind. The multiple, disinterested parties helps to ensure that the directives in the living will are what _you_ actually want, rather than a forgery (or coerced) put together by a beneficiary of your asset will.
Like /u/Ansuz07 said, the “of sound mind” part is probably the most important.
Inheritance is the big thing. Many, many families are torn apart because of disagreements over inheritance. If Grandma Marge has been very sick and suffering from dementia for a long time, she can often be easily manipulated into signing things she doesn’t really understand.
As sad as it sounds, it’s not uncommon for one sibling to convince a vulnerable senior to both sign over a large part of their estate, and then to sign a living will to ensure Grandma Marge won’t stick around incapacitated for long enough to any other sibling to notice and start questioning the inheritance plans.
So it’s really important that multiple unrelated people, who have no possible self-interest in the family inheritance, be there to verify that this is what Grandma Marge actually wants.
A living will talks about what treatment you should (or shouldn’t) receive when you are *not able* to make those decisions (unconscious, heavily drugged, very confused, etc.).
Unfortunately, people who are close to that person may have ulterior motives for wanting to keep someone alive or let them die in those situations (inheritance, spousal benefits, etc).
Having two unrelated witnesses makes the document a little harder to forge.
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