10 Guam Code Ann. § 91112
Terms Used In 10 Guam Code Ann. § 91112
- Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
- Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
(b) The making of a declaration pursuant to § 91103 does not affect in any manner the sale, procurement, or issuance of any policy of life insurance or annuity, nor does it affect, impair, or modify the terms of an existing policy of life insurance or annuity. A policy of life insurance or annuity is not legally impaired or invalidated by the withholding or withdrawal of life sustaining treatment from an insured, notwithstanding any term to the contrary.
(c) A person may not prohibit or require the execution of a declaration as a condition for being insured for, or receiving, health care services.
(d) This Act creates no presumption concerning the intention of an individual who has revoked or has not executed a declaration with respect to the use, withholding, or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in the event of a terminal condition or permanent conscious condition.
(e) This Act does not affect the right of a patient to make decisions regarding use of life-sustaining treatment, so long as the patient is able to do so, or impair or supersede a right or responsibility that a person has to effect the withholding or withdrawal of medical treatment.
(f) This Act does not require any physician or other health care provider to take any action contrary to reasonable medical standards.
(g) This Act does not condone, authorize, or approve mercy killing or assisted suicide or permit any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying.
(h) The rights granted by this Act are in addition to, and not in derogation of, rights under any other statutory or case law.
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10 Guam Code Ann. HEALTH AND SAFETY
CH. 91 NATURAL DEATH ACT
(i) A person shall be considered dead if, in the opinion of a physician, based on ordinary standards of current medical practice, the person has experienced irreversible cessation of spontaneous respiratory and circulatory function. Death occurs when the irreversible cessation of said functions first occurs. A registered nurse may pronounce death if the patient’s anticipated death has been certified pursuant to Title 10 Guam Code Ann.
§12332. Said certification shall be placed in the patient’s medical and
clinical records and shall remain valid for no more than one hundred eighty (180) days after its execution and must be renewed every one hundred eighty (180) days to remain valid.
(j) In the event that artificial means of support preclude a determination that respiratory and circulatory functions have ceased, a person shall be considered dead if, in the opinion of the attending physician and one other physician, based on ordinary standards of medical practice, the person has experienced irreversible cessation of all function of the brain, including brain stem. The opinions of the physicians shall be evidenced by signed statements. Death will have occurred at the time when the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, first occurred. Death shall be pronounced before artificial means of support are withdrawn and before any vital organ is removed for purposes of transplantation.
SOURCE: Subsection (i) amended by P.L. 29-008:8 (Sept. 7, 2007).