Advance health care directive means a witnessed written document or a witnessed oral statement, voluntarily executed by the declarant diagnosed as suffering from a terminal condition
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VA Health Care Decisions Act: Virginia Advance Health Care Directive (equivalent of Living Will and Power of Attorney for Health Care) is designed to help you communicate your wishes now about medical treatment |
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The Virginia Health Care Decisions Act contains a suggested (but not required) text for an Advance Health Care Directive and form for a written health care power-of-attorney.
We provide you with Advance Health Care Directive form suggested in Virginia Health Care Decisions Act.
If you appoint a person to be your agent in an Advance Medical Directive, that person has decision-making priority over any other individuals who, could, by law, make health care decisions for you. You must sign the document in the presence of two witnesses who are not your spouse or blood relatives. You do not need to have the document notarized. Before you start working on your Advance Health Care Directive you need to know the following definitions. All definitions age given in accordance with VA Health Care Decisions Act 54.1-2981 through 2993. "Advance directive" means (i) a witnessed written document, voluntarily executed by the declarant in accordance with the requirements of 54.1-2983 or (ii) a witnessed oral statement, made by the declarant subsequent to the time he is diagnosed as suffering from a terminal condition and in accordance with the provisions of 54.1-2983. "Agent" means an adult appointed by the declarant under an advance directive, executed or made in accordance with the provisions of 54.1-2983, to make health care decisions for him, including visitation, provided the advance directive makes express provisions for visitation and subject to physician orders and policies of the institution to which the declarant is admitted. The declarant may also appoint an adult to make, after the declarant's death, an anatomical gift of all or any part of his body pursuant to Article 2 ( 32.1-289 et seq.) of Chapter 8 of Title 32.1. "Attending physician" means the primary physician who has responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient. "Declarant" means an adult who makes an advance directive, as defined in this article, while capable of making and communicating an informed decision. "Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order" means a written physician's order issued pursuant to 54.1-2987.1 to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a particular patient in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest. For purposes of this article, cardiopulmonary resuscitation shall include cardiac compression, endotracheal intubation and other advanced airway management, artificial ventilation, and defibrillation and related procedures. As the terms "advance directive" and "Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order" are used in this article, a Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order is not and shall not be construed as an advance directive. "Incapable of making an informed decision" means the inability of an adult patient, because of mental illness, mental retardation, or any other mental or physical disorder which precludes communication or impairs judgment and which has been diagnosed and certified in writing by his attending physician and a second physician or licensed clinical psychologist after personal examination of such patient, to make an informed decision about providing, withholding or withdrawing a specific medical treatment or course of treatment because he is unable to understand the nature, extent or probable consequences of the proposed medical decision, or to make a rational evaluation of the risks and benefits of alternatives to that decision. For purposes of this article, persons who are deaf, dysphasic or have other communication disorders, who are otherwise mentally competent and able to communicate by means other than speech, shall not be considered incapable of making an informed decision. "Life-prolonging procedure" means any medical procedure, treatment or intervention which (i) utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, restore or supplant a spontaneous vital function, or is otherwise of such a nature as to afford a patient no reasonable expectation of recovery from a terminal condition and (ii) when applied to a patient in a terminal condition, would serve only to prolong the dying process. The term includes artificially administered hydration and nutrition. However, nothing in this act shall prohibit the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide comfort care or to alleviate pain, including the administration of pain relieving medications in excess of recommended dosages in accordance with 54.1-2971.01 and 54.1-3408.1. For purposes of 54.1-2988, 54.1-2989, and 54.1-2991, the term also shall include cardiopulmonary resuscitation. "Persistent vegetative state" means a condition caused by injury, disease or illness in which a patient has suffered a loss of consciousness, with no behavioral evidence of self-awareness or awareness of surroundings in a learned manner, other than reflex activity of muscles and nerves for low level conditioned response, and from which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, there can be no recovery. "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of Virginia or in the jurisdiction where the treatment is to be rendered or withheld. "Qualified patient" means a patient who has made an advance directive in accordance with this article and either (i) has been diagnosed and certified in writing by the attending physician and a second physician or licensed clinical psychologist after personal examination to be incapable of making an informed decision about providing, withholding or withdrawing a specific medical treatment or course of treatment, in accordance with 54.1-2986 or (ii) has been diagnosed and certified in writing by the attending physician to be afflicted with a terminal condition. "Terminal condition" means a condition caused by injury, disease or illness from which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability a patient cannot recover and (i) the patient's death is imminent or (ii) the patient is in a persistent vegetative state. "Witness" means any person over the age of 18, including a spouse or blood relative of the declarant. Employees of health care facilities and physician's offices, who act in good faith, shall be permitted to serve as witnesses for purposes of this article. Further, any competent adult who has been diagnosed by his attending physician as being in a terminal condition may make an oral advance directive to authorize the providing, withholding or withdrawing of life-prolonging procedures or to appoint an agent to make health care decisions for the declarant under the circumstances stated in the advance directive if the declarant should be determined to be incapable of making an informed decision. An oral advance directive shall be made in the presence of the attending physician and two witnesses. It shall be the responsibility of the declarant to provide for notification to his attending physician that an advance directive has been made. In the event the declarant is comatose, incapacitated or otherwise mentally or physically incapable of communication, any other person may notify the physician of the existence of an advance directive. An attending physician who is so notified shall promptly make the advance directive or a copy of the advance directive, if written, or the fact of the advance directive, if oral, a part of the declarant's medical records. An advance directive executed in another state shall be deemed to be validly executed for the purposes of this article if executed in compliance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the laws of the state where executed. Such advance directives shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Advance Medical Directive forms can be completed without the assistance of a lawyer. |
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