Definitions, general: 15-18-103.

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Adult" means any person eighteen years of age or older. (1.5) "Artificial nourishment" means nourishment supplied through a tube inserted into the stomach or intestines or nutrients injected intravenously into the bloodstream.

(2) "Attending physician" means the physician, whether selected by or assigned to a patient, who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of said patient.

(3) "Court" means the district court of the county in which a declarant having a terminal condition is located at the time of commencement of a proceeding pursuant to this article or, in the city and county of Denver, the probate court.

(4) "Declarant" means a mentally competent adult who executes a declaration.

(5) "Declaration" means a written document voluntarily executed by a declarant in accordance with the requirements of section 15-18-104.
(6) "Hospital" means an institution holding a license or certificate of compliance as a hospital issued by the department of public health and environment of this state and includes hospitals operated by the federal government in Colorado.

(7) "Life-sustaining procedure" means any medical procedure or intervention that, if administered to a qualified patient, would serve only to prolong the dying process. "Life-sustaining procedure" shall not include any medical procedure or intervention for nourishment of the qualified patient or considered necessary by the attending
physician to provide comfort or alleviate pain. However, artificial nourishment may be withdrawn or withheld pursuant to section 15-18-104 (2.5).

(8) "Physician" means a person duly licensed under the provisions of article 36 of title 12, C.R.S.

(9) "Qualified patient" means a patient who has executed a declaration in accordance with this article and who has been certified by the attending physician and one other physician to be in a terminal condition.

(10) "Terminal condition" means an incurable or irreversible condition for which the administration of life-sustaining procedures will serve only to postpone the
moment of death. 15-18-102.

Legislative declaration. (1) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that: (a) Colorado law has traditionally recognized the right of a competent adult to accept or reject medical or surgical treatment affecting his person; (b) Recent advances in medical science have made it possible to prolong dying through the use of artificial, extraordinary, extreme, or radical medical or surgical procedures; (c) The use of such medical or surgical procedures increasingly involves patients who are unconscious or otherwise incompetent to accept or reject medical or surgical treatment affecting their persons; (d) The traditional right to accept or reject medical or surgical treatment should be available to an adult while he is competent, notwithstanding the fact that such medical or surgical treatment may be offered or applied when he is suffering from a terminal condition and is either unconscious or otherwise incompetent to decide whether such medical or surgical treatment should be accepted or rejected; (e) This article affirms the traditional right to accept or reject medical or surgical treatment affecting one's person, and creates a procedure by which a competent adult may make such decisions in advance, before he becomes unconscious or otherwise incompetent to do so; (f) It is the legislative intent that nothing in this article shall have the effect of modifying or changing currently practiced medical ethics or protocol with respect to any patient in the absence of a declaration as provided for in section 15-18-104; (g) It is the legislative intent that nothing in this article shall require any person to execute a declaration.

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