a. Execution (signing) by the donor
The donor of an EPA has to sign it before a registered medical practitioner and a solicitor. That is to say, the donor has to sign twice on the prescribed form, once before a registered medical practitioner and one before a solicitor. The ideal situation would of course be the case where the donor, the registered medical practitioner and the solicitor are all present, so that everybody can sign his/her respective part of the prescribed form in one go. For the less ideal situation, the law allows the donor to sign his/her part in the presence of the solicitor within 28 days after he/she signs it in the presence of the registered medical practitioner (section 5(2)(a) of the Enduring Powers of Attorney Ordinance (Cap.501 of the Laws of Hong Kong)). One should also note that an EPA is executed only after the donor signs it in front of a solicitor. It means that if there is a time gap between the signing before the medical practitioner and the signing before the solicitor, the EPA is only a few pages of useless paper during this time gap.
Section 5(2)(b) of the Enduring Powers of Attorney Ordinance (Cap.501 of the Laws of Hong Kong) caters for the scenario where a donor is mentally capable but physically incapable of signing: “if the donor is physically incapable of signing, any other person, not being the attorney, the spouse of the attorney, the registered medical practitioner or the solicitor before whom the instrument is signed or the spouse of the registered medical practitioner or the solicitor, may sign the instrument on behalf of the donor in the presence, and under the direction, of the donor.”