Oregon Statutes - Chapter 127 - Powers of Attorney; Advance Directives for Health Care; Declarations for Mental Health Treatment; Death with Dignity - Section 127.505 - Definitions for ORS 127.505 to 127.660.

As used in ORS 127.505 to 127.660 and 127.995:

(1) “Adult” means an individual who is 18 years of age or older, who has been adjudicated an emancipated minor or who is married.

(2) “Advance directive” means a document that contains a health care instruction or a power of attorney for health care.

(3) “Appointment” means a power of attorney for health care, letters of guardianship or a court order appointing a health care representative.

(4) “Artificially administered nutrition and hydration” means a medical intervention to provide food and water by tube, mechanical device or other medically assisted method. “Artificially administered nutrition and hydration” does not include the usual and typical provision of nutrition and hydration, such as the provision of nutrition and hydration by cup, hand, bottle, drinking straw or eating utensil.

(5) “Attending physician” means the physician who has primary responsibility for the care and treatment of the principal.

(6) “Attorney-in-fact” means an adult appointed to make health care decisions for a principal under a power of attorney for health care, and includes an alternative attorney-in-fact.

(7) “Health care” means diagnosis, treatment or care of disease, injury and congenital or degenerative conditions, including the use, maintenance, withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining procedures and the use, maintenance, withdrawal or withholding of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.

(8) “Health care decision” means consent, refusal of consent or withholding or withdrawal of consent to health care, and includes decisions relating to admission to or discharge from a health care facility.

(9) “Health care facility” means a health care facility as defined in ORS 442.015, a domiciliary care facility as defined in ORS 443.205, a residential facility as defined in ORS 443.400, an adult foster home as defined in ORS 443.705 or a hospice program as defined in ORS 443.850.

(10) “Health care instruction” or “instruction” means a document executed by a principal to indicate the principal’s instructions regarding health care decisions.

(11) “Health care provider” means a person licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession, and includes a health care facility.

(12) “Health care representative” means:

(a) An attorney-in-fact;

(b) A person who has authority to make health care decisions for a principal under the provisions of ORS 127.635 (2) or (3); or

(c) A guardian or other person, appointed by a court to make health care decisions for a principal.

(13) “Incapable” means that in the opinion of the court in a proceeding to appoint or confirm authority of a health care representative, or in the opinion of the principal’s attending physician, a principal lacks the ability to make and communicate health care decisions to health care providers, including communication through persons familiar with the principal’s manner of communicating if those persons are available. “Capable” means not incapable.

(14) “Instrument” means an advance directive, acceptance, disqualification, withdrawal, court order, court appointment or other document governing health care decisions.

(15) “Life support” means life-sustaining procedures.

(16) “Life-sustaining procedure” means any medical procedure, pharmaceutical, medical device or medical intervention that maintains life by sustaining, restoring or supplanting a vital function. “Life-sustaining procedure” does not include routine care necessary to sustain patient cleanliness and comfort.

(17) “Medically confirmed” means the medical opinion of the attending physician has been confirmed by a second physician who has examined the patient and who has clinical privileges or expertise with respect to the condition to be confirmed.

(18) “Permanently unconscious” means completely lacking an awareness of self and external environment, with no reasonable possibility of a return to a conscious state, and that condition has been medically confirmed by a neurological specialist who is an expert in the examination of unresponsive individuals.

(19) “Physician” means an individual licensed to practice medicine by the Oregon Medical Board.

(20) “Power of attorney for health care” means a power of attorney document that authorizes an attorney-in-fact to make health care decisions for the principal when the principal is incapable.

(21) “Principal” means:

(a) An adult who has executed an advance directive;

(b) A person of any age who has a health care representative;

(c) A person for whom a health care representative is sought; or

(d) A person being evaluated for capability who will have a health care representative if the person is determined to be incapable.

(22) “Terminal condition” means a health condition in which death is imminent irrespective of treatment, and where the application of life-sustaining procedures or the artificial administration of nutrition and hydration serves only to postpone the moment of death of the principal.

(23) “Tube feeding” means artificially administered nutrition and hydration. [1989 c.914 §1; 1991 c.470 §11; 1993 c.767 §1]

(Health Care Decisions Generally)

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Last modified: August 7, 2008