South Carolina Code 62-5-501. Definitions
(1) "Agent" or "health care agent" means an individual designated in a health care power of attorney to make health care decisions on behalf of a principal.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 62-5-501
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
(2) "Declaration of a desire for a natural death" or "declaration" means a document executed in accordance with the South Carolina Death with Dignity Act or a similar document executed in accordance with the law of another state.
(3) "Health care" means a procedure to diagnose or treat a human disease, ailment, defect, abnormality, or complaint, whether of physical or mental origin. It also includes the provision of intermediate or skilled nursing care; services for the rehabilitation of injured, disabled, or sick persons; and placement in or removal from a facility that provides these forms of care.
(4) "Health care power of attorney" means a durable power of attorney executed in accordance with this part.
(5) "Health care provider" means a person, health care facility, organization, or corporation licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by the laws of this State to administer health care.
(6) "Life-sustaining procedure" means a medical procedure or intervention that serves only to prolong the dying process. Life-sustaining procedures do not include the administration of medication or other treatment for comfort care or alleviation of pain. The principal shall indicate in the health care power of attorney whether the provision of nutrition and hydration through medically or surgically implanted tubes is desired.
(7) "Permanent unconsciousness" means a medical diagnosis, consistent with accepted standards of medical practice, that a person is in a persistent vegetative state or some other irreversible condition in which the person has no neocortical functioning, but only involuntary vegetative or primitive reflex functions controlled by the brain stem.
(8) "Nursing care provider" means a nursing care facility or an employee of the facility.
(9) "Principal" means an individual who executes a health care power of attorney. A principal must be eighteen years of age or older and of sound mind.
(10) "Separated" means that the principal and his or her spouse are separated pursuant to one of the following:
(a) entry of a pendente lite order in a divorce or separate maintenance action;
(b) formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement;
(c) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties.