As used in the Hydration and Nutrition for Incompetent Patients Act:
1. "Attending physician" means the physician who has primary responsibility for the overall medical treatment and care of a patient;
2. "Final stage" means the last stage of a terminal illness or injury in which, even with the use of medical treatment, the person with the terminal illness or injury is in the dying process and will die within a reasonably short period of time;
3. "Health care provider" means a person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession;
4. "Incompetent patient" means any person who:
a.is a minor, or
b.has been declared legally incompetent to make decisions affecting medical treatment or care, or
c.in the reasonable judgment of the attending physician, is unable to make decisions affecting medical treatment or other health care services;
5. "Nutrition" means sustenance administered by way of the gastrointestinal tract;
6. "Physician" means a physician or surgeon licensed by the State Board of Medical Examiners or State Board of Osteopathy; and
7. "Terminal illness or injury" means an incurable and irreversible medical condition that, even with the use of medical treatment, will result in the death of a person from that condition or a complication arising from that condition.
Added by Laws 1987, c. 40, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 1987.