15-18.5-101. Legislative declaration - construction of statute.

Statute text

(1) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that:

(a) All adult persons have a fundamental right to make their own medical treatment and health-care benefit decisions, including decisions regarding medical treatment, artificial nourishment and hydration, and private or public health-care benefits;

(b) The lack of decisional capacity to provide informed consent to or refusal of medical treatment should not preclude such decisions from being made on behalf of a person who lacks such decisional capacity and who has no known advance medical directive, or whose wishes are not otherwise known; and

(c) The enactment of legislation to authorize proxy decision-makers to make medical treatment decisions and surrogate decision-makers to make health-care benefit decisions on behalf of persons lacking the decisional capacity to provide informed consent to or refusal of medical treatment is appropriate.

(2) The general assembly does not intend to encourage or discourage any particular medical treatment or to interfere with or affect any method of religious or spiritual healing otherwise permitted by law.

(3) Nothing in this article shall be construed as condoning, authorizing, or approving euthanasia or mercy killing. In addition, the general assembly does not intend that this article be construed as permitting any affirmative or deliberate act to end a person's life, except to permit natural death as provided by this article.

History

Source: L. 92: Entire article added, p. 1984, 3, effective June 4. L. 2006: (1)(a) and (1)(c) amended, p. 841, 3, effective May 4.