16 DE Code § 2501. (2021)
2021 Delaware Code|Title 16 - Health and Safety|Chapter 25. Health-Care Decisions|§ 2501. Definitions.

§ 2501. Definitions. (a) “Advance health-care directive” shall mean an individual instruction or a power of attorney for health care, or both. (b) “Agent” shall mean an individual designated in a power of attorney for health care to make a health-care decision for the individual granting the power. (c) “Artificial nutrition and hydration” means supplying food and water through a conduit, such as a tube or intravenous line where the recipient is not required to chew or swallow voluntarily, including, but not limited to, nasogastric tubes, gastrostomies, jejunostomies and intravenous infusions. Artificial nutrition and hydration does not include assisted feeding, such as spoon or bottle feeding. (d) “Capacity” shall mean an individual's ability to understand the significant benefits, risks and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health-care decision. (e) “Declarant” shall mean a person who executes an advance health-care directive. (f) “Guardian” shall mean a judicially appointed guardian or conservator having authority to make health-care decisions for an individual. (g) “Health care” shall mean any care, treatment, service or procedure to maintain, diagnose or otherwise affect an individual's physical or mental condition. (h) “Health-care decision” shall mean a decision made by an individual or the individual's agent, surrogate or guardian regarding the individual's health care, including:  (1) Selection and discharge of health-care providers and institutions; (2) Acceptance or refusal of diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, programs of medication and orders not to resuscitate; (3) Directions to provide, withhold or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care; and (4) Execution of a DMOST form pursuant to Chapter 25A of this title. (i) “Health-care institution” means an institution, facility or agency licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business. (j) “Health-care provider” means an individual licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession. (k) “Individual instruction” means an individual's direction concerning a health-care decision for the individual. (l) “Life-sustaining procedure” means:  (1) Any medical procedure, treatment or intervention that:  a. Utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a spontaneous vital function; and b. Is of such a nature as to afford a patient no reasonable expectation of recovery from a terminal condition or permanent unconsciousness. (2) Procedures which can include, but are not limited to, assisted ventilation, renal dialysis, surgical procedures, blood transfusions and the administration of drugs, antibiotics and artificial nutrition and hydration. (m) “Medically ineffective treatment” means that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a medical procedure will not:  (1) Prevent or reduce the deterioration of the health of an individual; or (2) Prevent the impending death of an individual. (n) “Person” means an individual, corporation, statutory trust, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity. (o) “Physician” means an individual authorized to practice medicine under Chapter 17 of Title 24. (p) “Power of attorney for health care” means the designation of an agent to make health-care decisions for the individual granting the power. (q) “Primary physician” or “attending physician” shall mean a physician designated by an individual or the individual's agent, surrogate or guardian to have primary responsibility for the individual's health care or, in the absence of a designation or if the designated physician is not reasonably available, a physician who undertakes the responsibility. (r) “Qualifying condition” means the existence of 1 or more of the following conditions in the patient, certified in writing in the patient's medical record by the attending physician and by at least 1 other physician who, when the condition in question is “permanently unconscious” shall be a board-certified neurologist and/or neurosurgeon:  (1) “Permanently unconscious” or “permanent unconsciousness” means a medical condition that has existed for at least 4 weeks and that has been diagnosed in accordance with currently accepted medical standards and with reasonable medical certainty as total and irreversible loss of consciousness and capacity for interaction with the environment. The term includes, without limitation, a persistent vegetative state or irreversible coma. (2) “Terminal condition” means any disease, illness or condition sustained by any human being for which there is no reasonable medical expectation of recovery and which, as a medical probability, will result in the death of such human being regardless of the use or discontinuance of medical treatment implemented for the purpose of sustaining life or the life processes. (3) “Serious illness or frailty” means a condition based on which the health-care practitioner would not be surprised if the patient died within the next year. (s) “Reasonably available” shall mean readily able to be contacted without undue effort and willing and able to act in a timely manner considering the urgency of the patient's health-care needs. (t) “Supervising health-care provider” shall mean the primary physician, or if there is no primary physician or the primary physician is not reasonably available, the health-care provider who has undertaken primary responsibility for an individual's health care. (u) “Surrogate” means an adult individual or individuals who:  (1) Have capacity; (2) Are reasonably available; (3) Are willing to make health-care decisions, including decisions to initiate, refuse to initiate, continue or discontinue the use of a life-sustaining procedure on behalf of a patient who lacks capacity; and (4) Are identified by the attending physician in accordance with this chapter as the person or persons who are to make those decisions in accordance with this chapter.70 Del. Laws, c. 392, §  2;  73 Del. Laws, c. 329, §  57;  80 Del. Laws, c. 18, §§  2, 4;