2018 Mississippi Code
Title 41 - Public Health
Chapter 41 - Surgical or Medical Procedures; Consents
Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act
§ 41-41-203. Definitions.
- For purposes of Chapter 41 of Title 41, Mississippi Code of 1972, the following words shall have the meaning ascribed in this section unless the context shall otherwise require:
(a) “Adult” means an individual who is eighteen (18) years of age or older.
(b) “Advance health-care directive” means an individual instruction or a power of attorney for health care.
(c) “Agent” means an individual designated in a power of attorney for health care to make a health-care decision for the individual granting the power.
(d) “Capacity” means an individual’s ability to understand the significant benefits, risks, and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health-care decision.
(e) “Emancipated minor” means an individual under the age of eighteen (18) years who:
(i) Is or has been married;
(ii) Has been adjudicated generally emancipated by a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(iii) Has been adjudicated emancipated for the purpose of making health-care decisions by a court of competent jurisdiction.
(f) “Guardian” means a judicially appointed guardian or conservator having authority to make a health-care decision for an individual.
(g) “Health care” means any care, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or otherwise affect an individual’s physical or mental condition.
(h) “Health-care decision” means a decision made by an individual or the individual’s agent, guardian, or surrogate, regarding the individual’s health care, including:
(i) Selection and discharge of health-care providers and institutions;
(ii) Approval or disapproval of diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, programs of medication, and orders not to resuscitate; and
(iii) Directions to provide, withhold or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care.
The phrase “health-care decision” does not include decisions made pursuant to Sections 41-39-31 through 41-39-51, the “Anatomical Gift Law.”
(i) “Health-care institution” means an institution, facility, or agency licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business.
(j) “Health-care provider” means an individual licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession.
(k) “Individual instruction” means an individual’s direction concerning a health-care decision for the individual.
(l) “Person” means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(m) “Physician” means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under Title 73, Chapter 25, Mississippi Code of 1972.
(n) “Power of attorney for health care” means the designation of an agent to make health-care decisions for the individual granting the power.
(o) “Primary physician” means a physician designated by an individual or the individual’s agent, guardian, or surrogate, to have primary responsibility for the individual’s health care or, in the absence of a designation or if the designated physician is not reasonably available, a physician who undertakes the responsibility.
(p) “Reasonably available” means readily able to be contacted without undue effort and willing and able to act in a timely manner considering the urgency of the patient’s health-care needs.
(q) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(r) “Supervising health-care provider” means the primary physician or, if there is no primary physician or the primary physician is not reasonably available, the health-care provider who has undertaken primary responsibility for an individual’s health care.
(s) “Surrogate” means an individual, other than a patient’s agent or guardian, authorized under Sections 41-41-201 through 41-41-229 to make a health-care decision for the patient.
