(a) The withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures from a qualified patient in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter shall not, for any purpose, constitute a suicide and shall not constitute the crime of assisting suicide.
(b) The making of a declaration pursuant to § 7-622 shall not affect in any manner the sale, procurement, or issuance of any policy of life insurance, nor shall it be deemed to modify the terms of an existing policy of life insurance. No policy of life insurance shall be legally impaired or invalidated in any manner by the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures from an insured qualified patient, notwithstanding any term of the policy to the contrary.
(c) No physician, health facility, or other health care provider, and no health care service plan, health maintenance organization, insurer issuing disability insurance, self-insured employee welfare benefit plan, nonprofit medical service corporation, or mutual nonprofit hospital service corporation shall require any person to execute a declaration as a condition for being insured for, or receiving, health care services.
CREDIT(S)
(Feb. 25, 1982, D.C. Law 4-69, § 9, 28 DCR 5047.)
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 6-2428.
Legislative History of Laws
For legislative history of D.C. Law 4-69, see Historical and Statutory Notes following § 7-621.