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§63-3101.3.
§63-3101.3.
As used in the Oklahoma Rights of the Terminally Ill or Persistently
Unconscious Act:
1. "Advance directive for health care" means any writing executed in
accordance with the requirements of Section 4 of this act and may
include a living will, the appointment of a health care proxy, or both
such living will and appointment of a proxy;
2. "Attending physician" means the physician who has primary
responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient;
3. "Declarant" means any individual who has issued an advance
directive according to the procedure provided for in Section 4 of this
act;
4. "Health care provider" means a person who is licensed, certified,
or otherwise authorized by the law of this state to administer health
care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession;
5. "Health care proxy" is an individual eighteen (18) years old or
older appointed by the declarant as attorney-in-fact to make health
care decisions including but not limited to the withholding or
withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment if a qualified patient, in the
opinion of the attending physician and another physician, is
persistently unconscious, incompetent, or otherwise mentally or
physically incapable of communication;
6. "Life-sustaining treatment" means any medical procedure or
intervention, including but not limited to the artificial
administration of nutrition and hydration if the declarant has
specifically authorized the withholding and withdrawal of artificially
administered nutrition and hydration, that, when administered to a
qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or
to maintain the patient in a condition of persistent unconsciousness.
The term "life-sustaining treatment" shall not include the
administration of medication or the performance of any medical
treatment deemed necessary to alleviate pain nor the normal
consumption of food and water;
7. "Persistently unconscious" means an irreversible condition, as
determined by the attending physician and another physician, in which
thought and awareness of self and environment are absent;
8. "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate,
trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government,
governmental subdivision or agency, or any other legal or commercial
entity;
9. "Physician" means an individual licensed to practice medicine in
this state;
10. "Qualified patient" means a patient eighteen (18) years of age or
older who has executed an advance directive and who has been
determined to be in a terminal condition or in a persistently
unconscious state by the attending physician and another physician who
have examined the patient;
11. "State" means a state, territory, or possession of the United
States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico;
and
12. "Terminal condition" means an incurable and irreversible condition
that, even with the administration of life-sustaining treatment, will,
in the opinion of the attending physician and another physician,
result in death within six (6) months.
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