Nebraska Statutes 20-403. Definitions
For purposes of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 20-403
- Company: shall include any corporation, partnership, limited liability company, joint-stock company, joint venture, or association. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
- 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.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Person: shall include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
- Person shall: include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
- Process: shall mean a summons, subpoena, or notice to appear issued out of a court in the course of judicial proceedings. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
- State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
- United States: shall include territories, outlying possessions, and the District of Columbia. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
(1) Adult shall mean any person who is nineteen years of age or older or who is or has been married;
(2) Attending physician shall mean the physician who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient;
(3) Declaration shall mean a writing executed in accordance with the requirements of subsection (1) of section 20-404 ;
(4) Health care provider shall mean 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) Life-sustaining treatment shall mean any medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or maintain the qualified patient in a persistent vegetative state;
(6) Persistent vegetative state shall mean a medical condition that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as determined in accordance with currently accepted medical standards, is characterized by a total and irreversible loss of consciousness and capacity for cognitive interaction with the environment and no reasonable hope of improvement;
(7) Person shall mean an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision or agency, or other legal or commercial entity;
(8) Physician shall mean an individual licensed to practice medicine in this state;
(9) Qualified patient shall mean an adult who has executed a declaration and who has been determined by the attending physician to be in a terminal condition or a persistent vegetative state;
(10) State shall mean 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; and
(11) Terminal condition shall mean an incurable and irreversible condition that, without the administration of life-sustaining treatment, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short time.