O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 31-32-14 (2019)

Effect of chapter on other legal rights and duties

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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(a) Nothing in this chapter shall impair or supersede any legal right or legal responsibility which any person may have to effect the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or the withholding or withdrawal of the provision of nourishment or hydration in any lawful manner. (b) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve mercy killing or to permit any affirmative or deliberate act

or omission to end life other than to permit the process of dying as provided in this chapter. Furthermore, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve abortion. (c) This chapter shall create no presumption concerning the intention of an individual who has not executed an advance directive for health care to consent to the use or withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or the withholding or withdrawal of the provision of nourishment or hydration in the event of a terminal condition or state of permanent unconsciousness. (d) Except to the extent provided in an advance directive for health care and subject to the health care agent’s duty to exercise granted powers in such manner as the health care agent deems consistent with the intentions and desires of the declarant pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 31-32-7, a declarant’s directions in an advance directive for health care regarding the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or the withholding or withdrawal of the provision of nourishment or hydration shall be ineffective as long as there is a health care agent available and willing to make decisions for and on behalf of the declarant regarding the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures or the withholding or withdrawal of the provision of nourishment or hydration when the declarant is in a terminal condition or state of permanent unconsciousness. (e) Unless an advance directive for health care provides otherwise, a health care agent who is known to a health care provider to be available and willing to make health care decisions for a declarant has priority over any other person, including any guardian, to act for the declarant in all matters covered by the advance directive for health care. (f ) Nothing in this chapter shall affect the delegation of a parent’s power to control the health care of a minor child.

History

Code 1981, § 31-32-14, enacted by Ga. L. 2007, p. 133, § 2/HB 24.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Cited in Doctors Hosp. of Augusta, LLC v. Alicea, 332 Ga. App. 529, 774 S.E.2d 114 (2015).

CHAPTER 33 HEALTH RECORDS Sec.

Definitions. Furnishing copy of records to patient, provider, or other authorized person. Costs of copying and mailing; patient’s rights as to records; applicability to psychiatric, psychological, and other mental health records. Mental health records.

Cross references. - Temporary medical consent guardianship, § 29-4-18. Editor’s notes. - Chapter 32 was added to Title 31 by both Ga. L. 1984, p. 1477, § 1, and by Ga. L. 1984, p. 1680, § 1. The former is set out as Chapter 32 and the latter was redesignated as Chapter 33 by Ga. L. 1985, p. 149, § 31. Administrative rules and regulations. - Patient referrals and patient records, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia,

Sec.

Immunity from liability for releasing information. Confidential communications. Furnishing copies of psychological or psychiatric evaluation to law enforcement officer upon request. Electronic records; application to psychiatric, psychological, or other mental health records.

Georgia Board of Chiropractic Examiners, Immoral and Unprofessional Conduct Defined, § 100-7-.07. Unprofessional conduct defined, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Georgia Board of Dentistry, § 150-8-.01. Unprofessional conduct defined, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, State Board of Podiatry Examiners, § 500-8-.01.

RESEARCH REFERENCES ALR. - Medical malpractice: presumption or inference from failure of hospital or

doctor to produce relevant medical records, 69 A.L.R.4th 906.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 2013–2016 · leading case: Doctors Hosp. of Augusta v. Alicea, Admrx., 788 S.E.2d 392 (Ga. 2016).

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Doctors Hosp. of Augusta v. Alicea, Admrx., 788 S.E.2d 392 (Ga. 2016). · cites it 4× “See OCGA § 31-32-14 (d). The health care agent also has priority over any other person, including a guardian, to act for the patient in matters covered by the advance directive, unless the directive says otherwise.”

Ankrom v. State, 152 So. 3d 397 (Ala. 2013). “113 (1) (2010); Ga.Code Ann. § 31-32-14(b) (2009); Nev.Rev.”

— 31-32-14(b) — 1 case

Ankrom v. State, 152 So. 3d 397 (Ala. 2013). “113 (1) (2010); Ga.Code Ann. § 31-32-14(b) (2009); Nev.Rev.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.