Statutory Healthcare Declaration - Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment by an Appointee, Allowing Another to Make Decisions
STATUTORY REFERENCE
ALL REFERENCES ARE TO THE NEVADA REVISED STATUTES
UNIFORM ACT ON RIGHTS OF THE TERMINALLY ILL
(§§ 449.535 through 449.690)
Selected Definitions
A "declaration" is a writing executed in accordance with the requirements
of NRS 449.600.
A "qualified patient" is a person eighteen or more years of age
who has executed a declaration and who has been determined by the attending
physician to be in a terminal condition.
"Life sustaining treatment" is a medical procedure or intervention
that, when administered to a patient, serves only to prolong the process
of dying.
A "terminal condition" is an incurable and irreversible condition
that, without the administration of life sustaining treatment, will, in
the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively
short time.
Declaration
A person of sound mind and 18 or more years of age may execute a
declaration governing the withholding or withdrawal of life sustaining
treatment and may designate another natural person of sound mind and 18
or more years of age to make decisions governing the withholding or withdrawal
of life sustaining treatment.
The declaration must be signed by the declarant, or another at the
declarant's direction, and attested by two witnesses.
A declaration becomes operative when it is communicated to the attending
physician and the declarant is determined by the attending physician to
be in a terminal condition and no longer able to make decisions regarding
administration of life sustaining treatment. When the declaration
becomes operative, the attending physician and other providers of health
care shall act in accordance with its provisions and with the instructions
of a person designated pursuant to NRS 449.600 to make decisions for the
patient.
Form
A declaration is not required to be in the statutory form.
Revocation
A declarant may revoke a declaration at any time and in any manner,
without regard to his mental or physical condition.
A revocation is effective upon its communication to the attending
physician or other provider of health care by the declarant or a witness
to the revocation.
An attending physician or other provider of health care shall make
the revocation a part of the declarant's medical record.
Consent By Others
The authority to consent or to withhold consent may be exercised
by the following persons, in order of priority:
- The spouse of the patient;
- An adult child of the patient or, if there is more than one adult child,
a majority of the adult children who are reasonably available for consultation;
- The parents of the patient;
- An adult sibling of the patient or, if there is more than one adult
sibling, a majority of the adult siblings who are reasonably available
for consultation; or
- The nearest other adult relative of the patient by blood or adoption
who is reasonably available for consultation.
If a class entitled to decide whether to consent is not reasonably
available for consultation and competent to decide, or declines to decide,
the next class is authorized to decide, but an equal division in a class
does not authorize the next class to decide.
A decision to grant or withhold consent must be made in good faith.
A consent is not valid if it conflicts with the expressed intention of
the patient.
A decision of the attending physician acting in good faith that
a consent is valid or invalid is conclusive.
Pregnancy
Life sustaining treatment must not be withheld or withdrawn pursuant
to this section from a patient known to the attending physician to be pregnant
so long as it is probable that the fetus will develop to the point of live
birth with continued application of life sustaining treatment.
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