As used in this chapter:

(1) "Declarant" means a person who has signed a declaration in accordance with Sections 44-77-40 and 44-77-50, in accordance with earlier, current, or future versions of this chapter, or in accordance with the law of another state if the declaration provided for by the law expresses an intent that is substantially the same as the intent of the declaration provided in Section 44-77-40.

(2) "Life-sustaining procedures" means any medical procedures or intervention which would serve only to prolong the dying process and where, in the judgment of the attending physician, death will occur whether or not the procedures are utilized. Life-sustaining procedures do not include the administration of medication or other treatment for comfort care or alleviation of pain. The declarant shall indicate in the declaration whether the provision of nutrition and hydration through medically or surgically implanted tubes is to be treated as a life-sustaining procedure. Pursuant to a lawfully executed declaration if the declarant fails to give instructions by initialing the appropriate statements concerning nutrition and hydration, nutrition and hydration necessary for comfort care or alleviation of pain will be provided.

(3) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine.

(4) "Terminal condition" means an incurable or irreversible condition that, within reasonable medical judgment, could cause death within a reasonably short period of time if life-sustaining procedures are not used.

(5) "Active treatment" means the standard of reasonable professional care that would be rendered by a physician to a patient in the absence of a declaration including, but not limited to, hospitalization and medication.

(6) "Person" means an individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation, hospital, or other organization or group.

(7) "Permanent unconsciousness" means a medical diagnosis, consistent with accepted standards of medical practice, that a person is in a persistent vegetative state or some other irreversible condition in which the person has no neocortical functioning, but only involuntary vegetative or primitive reflex functions controlled by the brain stem.

HISTORY: 1986 Act No. 341, Section 2; 1988 Act No. 586; 1991 Act No. 149, Section 2.