Florida Statutes 765.404 – Persistent vegetative state
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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 765.404
- Advance directive: means a witnessed written document or oral statement in which instructions are given by a principal or in which the principal's desires are expressed concerning any aspect of the principal's health care or health information, and includes, but is not limited to, the designation of a health care surrogate, a living will, or an anatomical gift made pursuant to part V of this chapter. See Florida Statutes 765.101
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Health care: means care, services, or supplies related to the health of an individual and includes, but is not limited to, preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, maintenance, or palliative care, and counseling, service, assessment, or procedure with respect to the individual's physical or mental condition or functional status or that affect the structure or function of the individual's body. See Florida Statutes 765.101
- Persistent vegetative state: means a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is:(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of any kind. See Florida Statutes 765.101
- person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
- Physician: means a person licensed pursuant to chapter 458 or chapter 459. See Florida Statutes 765.101
- Primary physician: means a physician designated by an individual or the individual's surrogate, proxy, or agent under a durable power of attorney as provided in chapter 709, to have primary responsibility for the individual's health care or, in the absence of a designation or if the designated physician is not reasonably available, a physician who undertakes the responsibility. See Florida Statutes 765.101
- Proxy: means a competent adult who has not been expressly designated to make health care decisions for a particular incapacitated individual, but who, nevertheless, is authorized pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 765.101
For persons in a persistent vegetative state, as determined by the person‘s primary physician in accordance with currently accepted medical standards, who have no advance directive and for whom there is no evidence indicating what the person would have wanted under such conditions, and for whom, after a reasonably diligent inquiry, no family or friends are available or willing to serve as a proxy to make health care decisions for them, life-prolonging procedures may be withheld or withdrawn under the following conditions:(1) The person has a judicially appointed guardian representing his or her best interest with authority to consent to medical treatment; and(2) The guardian and the person’s primary physician, in consultation with the medical ethics committee of the facility where the patient is located, conclude that the condition is permanent and that there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery and that withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures is in the best interest of the patient. If there is no medical ethics committee at the facility, the facility must have an arrangement with the medical ethics committee of another facility or with a community-based ethics committee approved by the Florida Bio-ethics Network. The ethics committee shall review the case with the guardian, in consultation with the person’s primary physician, to determine whether the condition is permanent and there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery. The individual committee members and the facility associated with an ethics committee shall not be held liable in any civil action related to the performance of any duties required in this subsection.