CopyCited 25 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Nov 21, 1989 | 259 Ga. 579
...by the Act, life-sustaining procedures will be withheld. A "terminal condition" is defined as an "incurable condition caused by disease, illness or injury, which regardless of the application of life-sustaining procedures, would produce death." OCGA §
31-32-2 (10)....
CopyCited 13 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | May 10, 1991 | 261 Ga. 236
...] The doctor testified that two physicians must, and did, examine and independently determine that the victim was already legally dead in order to remove the support systems, as required by the institutional policy of the Medical College of Georgia. O.C.G.A. §
31-32-2, cited by the defendant, contains a similar requirement for "living will" cases, where the patient is "terminal" within the meaning of that statute....
CopyCited 7 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Jul 5, 2016 | 788 S.E.2d 392
...Thus, a
clear objective of the Act is to ensure that in making decisions about a patient’s
health care, it is the will of the patient or her designated agent, and not the will
of the health care provider, that controls.
(b) OCGA §
31-32-2 defines terms that are used in the Advance
Directive Act....
...” to “act for and on behalf of the declarant
to make decisions related to consent, refusal, or withdrawal of any type of health
care . . . when a declarant is unable or chooses not to make health care decisions
for himself or herself.” OCGA §
31-32-2 (1), (3), (6)....
... directive for health care).8
The Act defines “health care” broadly to mean “any care, treatment,
service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, treat, or provide for a declarant’s
physical or mental health or personal care.” OCGA §
31-32-2 (5). Several
subcategories of health care are also defined, including “provision of
nourishment or hydration,” which refers to “the provision of nutrition or fluids
by tube or other medical means,” OCGA §
31-32-2 (12); and “life-sustaining
procedures,” which means “medications, machines, or other medical procedures
or interventions” without which death will occur in the judgment of the patient’s
attending physician and another doctor and which could, in reasonable medical
judgment, keep a patient who is in a terminal condition or state of permanent
unconsciousness alive but cannot cure her, OCGA §
31-32-2 (9). See also
OCGA §
31-32-2 (14) (defining a “terminal condition” as “an incurable or
irreversible condition which would result in the declarant’s death in a relatively
8
Although the Advance Directive that Stephenson executed in 2009 was n...
...A patient’s “health care providers” include her “attending physician” – the
doctor with primary responsibility for her treatment and care – and “any other
person administering health care,” as well as “any person employed by or acting
for” them. OCGA §
31-32-2 (2), (8). So Dr. Catalano and the Hospital’s staff
were among Stephenson’s health care providers; the Hospital itself was a
“health care facility.” See OCGA §
31-32-2 (9).
It is the responsibility of the patient or the health care agent to notify the
health care provider of the existence of the advance directive and any
amendment to or revocation of the directive....
...copy a part of the [patient’s] medical records and shall enter in the records any
change in or termination of the advance directive . . . that becomes known to the
9
The Act also describes two additional subcategories of health care. OCGA §
31-32-2 (9)
specifically excludes from “life-sustaining procedures” what might be called palliative care – “the
administration of medication to alleviate pain or the performance of any medical procedure deemed
necessary to alleviate pain....
