Home > For Everyone > Health and Medicine > Death and Dying > California Health and Safety Code 442

Death and Dying

For this topic:

Go back to the topic homeTopic Home
Join the forum for this topicForum
Sign up for Email related to this topicEmail
RSS feed for this topicRSS
FeedbackFeedback

Search the California Codes

California Health and Safety Code 442

California Codes > California Health and Safety Code > Division 1 > Part 1.8 > § 442

^{Current as of: 2010}

^{Check for updates}

2009 version

  For the purposes of this part, the following definitions shall
apply:
   (a) "Actively dying" means the phase of terminal illness when
death is imminent.
   (b) "Disease-targeted treatment" means treatment directed at the
underlying disease or condition that is intended to alter its natural
history or progression, irrespective of whether or not a cure is a
possibility.
   (c) "Health care provider" means an attending physician and
surgeon. It also means a nurse practitioner or physician assistant
practicing in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols
developed and approved by the supervising physician and surgeon and
the nurse practitioner or physician assistant.
   (d) "Hospice" means a specialized form of interdisciplinary health
care that is designed to provide palliative care, alleviate the
physical, emotional, social, and spiritual discomforts of an
individual who is experiencing the last phases of life due to the
existence of a terminal disease, and provide supportive care to the
primary caregiver and the family of the hospice patient, and that
meets all of the criteria specified in subdivision (b) of Section
1746.
   (e) "Palliative care" means medical treatment, interdisciplinary
care, or consultation provided to a patient or family members, or
both, that has as its primary purpose the prevention of, or relief
from, suffering and the enhancement of the quality of life, rather
than treatment aimed at investigation and intervention for the
purpose of cure or prolongation of life as described in subdivision
(b) of Section 1339.31. In some cases, disease-targeted treatment may
be used in palliative care.
   (f) "Refusal or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment" means
forgoing treatment or medical procedures that replace or support an
essential bodily function, including, but not limited to,
cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, artificial
nutrition and hydration, dialysis, and any other treatment or
discontinuing any or all of those treatments after they have been
used for a reasonable time.