§ 15-18-103 — Definitions

Colorado § 15-18-103

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 15: Probate,
• Art.: Colorado Medical Treatment

Text

As used in this article 18, unless the context
otherwise requires:

(1) Adult means any person eighteen years of age or older.

(2) Advanced practice registered nurse means a nurse who is included in
the advanced practice registry pursuant to section 12-255-111.

(3) Artificial nutrition and hydration means:

(a) Nutrition or hydration supplied through a tube inserted into the stomach
or intestines; or

(b) Nutrients or fluids injected intravenously into the bloodstream.

(4) Attending physician means the physician, whether selected by or
assigned to a patient, who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of
the patient.

(5) Court means the district court of the county in which a declarant having
a terminal condition or in a persistent vegetative state is located at the time of
commencement of a proceeding pursuant to this article or, if in the city and county
of Denver, the probate court.

(6) Decisional capacity means the ability to provide informed consent to or
refusal of medical treatment or the ability to make an informed health-care benefit
decision.

(7) Declarant means an adult possessing decisional capacity who executes
a declaration.

(8) Declaration means a written document voluntarily executed by a
declarant in accordance with the requirements of section 15-18-104.

(9) Hospital means an institution holding a license or certificate of
compliance as a hospital issued by the department of public health and
environment and includes hospitals operated by the federal government in
Colorado.

(10) Life-sustaining procedure means any medical procedure or
intervention that, if administered to a qualified patient, would serve only to prolong
the dying process, and shall not include any medical procedure or intervention for
nourishment of the qualified patient or considered necessary by the attending
physician or advanced practice registered nurse to provide comfort or alleviate
pain.

(11) Persistent vegetative state is defined by reference to the criteria and
definitions employed by prevailing community medical standards of practice.

(12) Physician means a person duly licensed under the provisions of article
240 of title 12.

(13) Qualified patient means a patient who has executed a declaration in
accordance with this article and who has been certified by his or her attending
physician and one other physician to have a terminal condition or be in a persistent
vegetative state.

(14) Terminal condition means an incurable or irreversible condition for
which the administration of life-sustaining procedures will serve only to prolong the
dying process.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2010: Entire article R&RE, (HB 10-1025), ch. 113, p. 376, � 1, effective August 11. L. 2019: IP, (2), and (12) amended, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1670, � 81, effective October 1.