Revocation of Statutory Living Will
STATUTORY REFERENCE
ALL REFERENCES ARE TO THE TENNESSEE CODE ANNOTATED
REVOCATION OF LIVING WILL
General Information (§ 32-11-103)
Under the Tennessee Right to Natural Death Act,
- a "competent person" is an individual who is able to understand and
appreciate the nature and consequences of a decision to accept or refuse
treatment;
- a "declarant" is an individual who declares a living will under the
applicable statutes;
- a "living will" is a written declaration stating a declarant's desires
for medical care or non-care, including palliative care, and other related
matters such as organ donation and body disposal;
- "palliative care" includes any measure taken by a physician or health
care provider designed primarily to maintain the patient's comfort; and
- a "terminal condition" is any disease, illness, injury or condition,
including, but not limited to, a coma or persistent vegetative state, sustained
by any human being, from which there is no reasonable medical expectation
of recovery and which, as a medical probability, will result in the death
of a human being, regardless of the use or discontinuance of medical treatment
implemented for the purpose of sustaining life, or the life processes.
Execution and Delivery (§ 32-11-104)
A competent adult person may execute a declaration directing the
withholding or withdrawal of medical care to become effective on loss of
competency.
The declaration must be acknowledged and signed by the declarant
in the presence of two (2) witnesses. The witnesses must verify that
they are not related to the declarant by blood or marriage and that they
would not be entitled to any portion of the estate of the declarant upon
the declarant's demise under any will or codicil thereto made by the declarant.
The witnesses must verify that neither of them is the attending physician,
an employee of the attending physician, or an employee of a health facility
in which the declarant is a patient, and that neither of them has a claim
against any portion of the estate of the declarant.
It is the responsibility of the declarant or someone acting on the
declarant's behalf to deliver a copy of a living will or declaration to
the attending physician and/or other concerned health care provider. An
attending physician must make the declaration, or a copy of it, part of
the declarant's medical record.
Form (§ 32-11-104)
A living will declaration must be substantially in the statutory
form established in § 32-11-105.
Revocation (§ 32-11-106)
A declaration may be revoked at any time by the declarant, without
regard to the declarant's mental state or competency, by any of the following
methods:
- written revocation by the declarant, dated and signed by the declarant.
- oral statement or revocation made by the declarant to the attending
physician.
A revocation must be made a part of the declarant's medical
record by the attending physician.
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