South Carolina Code 44-77-30. When life-sustaining procedures may be withheld
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If a person eighteen years of age or older adopts a declaration that is substantially in the form provided in § 44-77-50, whether executed before or after an amendment is made to the form, and that on its face is duly executed, witnessed, and authenticated as provided in § 44-77-40 or on its face is in compliance with the law of the state of the declarant‘s domicile at the time that the declaration is adopted, if the declaration provided for by the law expresses an intent that is substantially the same as the intent of the declaration provided in § 44-77-40, and the person’s present condition is certified to be terminal or to be in a state of permanent unconsciousness by two physicians who personally have examined the declarant, one of whom is the declarant’s attending physician, and the other of whom is a physician other than the attending physician, then life-sustaining procedures may be withheld or withdrawn upon the direction and under the supervision of the attending physician. A certification based upon a diagnosis of permanent unconsciousness may not be made until the declarant has remained unconscious for at least ninety consecutive days, or at any time if the declarant has experienced massive destruction or atrophy of the cortex as evidenced by neurodiagnostic studies or gross inspection of the brain, or some other characteristic of the declarant’s condition allows a diagnosis of permanent unconsciousness to be made with a high degree of medical certainty.
All patients with life-threatening conditions that are diagnosed as terminal or in a state of permanent unconsciousness must be administered active treatment for at least six hours following the diagnosis before the physician may give effect to a declaration.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 44-77-30
- Active treatment: means the standard of reasonable professional care that would be rendered by a physician to a patient in the absence of a declaration including, but not limited to, hospitalization and medication. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Declarant: means a person who has signed a declaration in accordance with §§ 44-77-40 and 44-77-50, in accordance with earlier, current, or future versions of this chapter, or in accordance with the law of another state if the declaration provided for by the law expresses an intent that is substantially the same as the intent of the declaration provided in § 44-77-40. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20
- Life-sustaining procedures: means any medical procedures or intervention which would serve only to prolong the dying process and where, in the judgment of the attending physician, death will occur whether or not the procedures are utilized. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20
- Permanent unconsciousness: means a medical diagnosis, consistent with accepted standards of medical practice, that a person is in a persistent vegetative state or some other irreversible condition in which the person has no neocortical functioning, but only involuntary vegetative or primitive reflex functions controlled by the brain stem. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20
- Person: means an individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation, hospital, or other organization or group. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20
- Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine. See South Carolina Code 44-77-20