§ 32A-16. Definitions.
§ 32A‑16. Definitions.
The following definitionsapply in this Article:
(1) Disposition ofremains. The decision to bury or cremate human remains, as human remains aredefined in G.S. 90‑210.121, and, subject to G.S. 32A‑19(b),arrangements relating to burial or cremation.
(1a) Health care. Anycare, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, treat, or providefor the principal's physical or mental health or personal care and comfortincluding life‑prolonging measures. "Health care" includesmental health treatment as defined in subdivision (8) of this section.
(2) Health care agent. The person appointed as a health care attorney‑in‑fact.
(3) Health care power ofattorney. A written instrument that substantially meets the requirements ofthis Article, that is signed in the presence of two qualified witnesses, andacknowledged before a notary public, pursuant to which an attorney‑in‑factor agent is appointed to act for the principal in matters relating to thehealth care of the principal. The notary who takes the acknowledgement may butis not required to be a paid employee of the attending physician or mentalhealth treatment provider, a paid employee of a health facility in which theprincipal is a patient, or a paid employee of a nursing home or any adult carehome in which the principal resides.
(4) Life‑prolongingmeasures. Medical procedures or interventions which in the judgment of theattending physician would serve only to postpone artificially the moment ofdeath by sustaining, restoring, or supplanting a vital function, includingmechanical ventilation, dialysis, antibiotics, artificial nutrition andhydration, and similar forms of treatment. Life‑prolonging measures donot include care necessary to provide comfort or to alleviate pain.
(5) Principal. Theperson making the health care power of attorney.
(6) Qualified witness. A witness in whose presence the principal has executed the health care power ofattorney, who believes the principal to be of sound mind, and who states thathe or she (i) is not related within the third degree to the principal nor tothe principal's spouse, (ii) does not know nor have a reasonable expectationthat he or she would be entitled to any portion of the estate of the principalupon the principal's death under any existing will or codicil of the principalor under the Intestate Succession Act as it then provides, (iii) is not theattending physician or mental health treatment provider of the principal, nor alicensed health care provider who is a paid employee of the attending physicianor mental health treatment provider, nor a paid employee of a health facilityin which the principal is a patient, nor a paid employee of a nursing home orany adult care home in which the principal resides, and (iv) does not have aclaim against any portion of the estate of the principal at the time of theprincipal's execution of the health care power of attorney.
(7) Advance instructionfor mental health treatment or advance instruction. As defined in G.S. 122C‑72(1).
(8) Mental healthtreatment. The process of providing for the physical, emotional,psychological, and social needs of the principal for the principal's mentalillness. "Mental health treatment" includes electroconvulsivetreatment, treatment of mental illness with psychotropic medication, andadmission to and retention in a facility for care or treatment of mentalillness. (1991,c. 639, s. 1; 1998‑198, s. 1; 1998‑217, s. 53; 2005‑351, s.1; 2006‑226, s. 32; 2007‑502, s. 2.)