2. The chief executive officer of a State or county psychiatric hospital or developmental center, a State or county penal or correctional institution, or a juvenile facility or detention center, or the regional administrator of a Division of Developmental Disabilities community services region is hereby authorized to give consent for medical, psychiatric, surgical, or dental treatment to patients who lack mental capacity, inmates, or juveniles under age 18, or residents, hospitalized, confined, or placed by the Division of Developmental Disabilities in community-based alternate living arrangements in the State or in private facilities both in and outside the State, under circumstances where it appears that:

a. The patients, inmates, juveniles, or residents, because of mental incapacity or nonage, are legally prevented from giving consent to the treatment; and

b. Either:

(1) there is no parent or guardian known to the officer or administrator, after reasonable inquiry, who has the mental capacity to give consent for the treatment of patients, inmates under the age of 18, or residents; or

(2) where a parent or guardian, after reasonable notice of the proposed treatment and a request for consent, and prior to the date fixed in the notice for the rendering of the treatment, refuses or neglects to execute and submit to the officer or administrator a writing expressing either the grant or denial of the consent; and

c. Where a licensed physician, psychiatrist, surgeon, or dentist certifies that the treatment to be performed is essential and beneficial to the general health and welfare of the patient, inmate, or resident, or will improve the opportunity for recovery or prolong or save the person‘s life.

L.1969, c.181, s.2; amended 1995, c.280, s.31; 1997, c.208, s.2; 2013, c.103, s.78.