You can get a good deal of information from the internet, but it is not always accurate for your state.  An example is the Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) for Alabama.  This is an advance directive agreement between a doctor and a patient with advanced, chronic, or end-stage illness stating the patient’s choices for treatment. A doctor signing the form turns those choices into physician orders to assure that the patient gets only the treatment he or she wants. It is known as a portable medical order.  

There are a number of states which recognize this national form first developed in 1991 in Oregon, but Alabama is not one of them.  The closest thing Alabama has is a portable DNAR (Do Not Attempt Resuscitation) which only instructs health care providers not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if a patient’s breathing stops or if the patient’s heart stops beating. 

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, A POLST form from another state (or downloaded from the internet) cannot be a substitute for the Alabama Portable DNAR form published by Health Department. If a hospital or other health care entity wants to use its own DNAR rather than the Health Department form, it can, but it will not be portable from facility to facility.

If you want specific treatments honored in Alabama you need to either name an agent who knows your wishes to act for you as your health care proxy or prepare a detailed Advance Directive For Health Care, but no doctor will sign off on it.