Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 18 > Chapter 231 - Advance Directives for Health Care, Disposition of Remains, and Surrogate Decision Making

• Advance directive: means a written record executed pursuant to section 9703 of this title, which may include appointment of an agent, identification of a preferred primary care clinician, instructions on health care desires or treatment goals, an anatomical gift, disposition of remains, and funeral goods and services. See
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Agency: means the Agency of Transportation. See
• Agent: means an adult with capacity to whom authority to make health care decisions is delegated under an advance directive, including an alternate agent if the agent is not reasonably available. See
• 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.
• Annual meeting: when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof. See
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Board: means the Transportation Board. See
• Capacity: means an individual's ability to make and communicate a decision regarding the issue that needs to be decided. See
• Clinician: means a medical doctor licensed to practice under 26 Vt. See
• COLST: means a clinician's order or orders for treatment such as intubation, mechanical ventilation, transfer to hospital, antibiotics, artificially administered nutrition, or another medical intervention. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Health. See
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the Department of Health. See
• Director: means the head of a division. See
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• District: means a geographic subdivision of the State primarily established for maintenance purposes. See
• District clerk: means the individual elected as clerk of a union school district by the voters of the district pursuant to the provisions of sections 715 (union school district organizational meeting), 735 (unified union school district officers and election), and 753 (union elementary and union high school district officers and election) of this chapter. See
• Division: means a major unit of the Agency engaged in line functions other than the Department of Motor Vehicles. See
• DNR identification: means a necklace, bracelet, or anklet identifying the patient as an individual who has a DNR order. See
• DNR order: means a written order of the patient's clinician directing health care providers not to attempt resuscitation. See
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Forming districts: means all school districts, including union school districts, that are located within the geographical boundaries of a proposed or voter-approved union school district prior to the operational date of the union school district, which will potentially merge or have merged to form the new union school district. See
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Guardian: means a person appointed by the Probate Division of the Superior Court who has the authority to make medical decisions pursuant to 14 V. See
• Health care: means any treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or treat an individual's physical or mental condition, including services provided pursuant to a clinician's order, and services to assist in activities of daily living provided by a health care provider or in a health care facility or residential care facility. See
• Health care decision: means consent, refusal to consent, or withdrawal of consent to any health care and includes consent to receive out-of-network services. See
• Highway: shall include park and rides. See
• highway: includes rights-of-way, bridges, drainage structures, signs, guardrails, areas to accommodate utilities authorized by law to locate within highway limits, areas used to mitigate the environmental impacts of highway construction, vegetation, scenic enhancements, and structures. See
• HIPAA: means the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, codified at 42 U. See
• Informed consent: means the consent given voluntarily by an individual with capacity, on his or her own behalf or on behalf of another in the role of an agent, guardian, or surrogate, after being fully informed of the nature, benefits, risks, and consequences of the proposed health care, alternative health care, and no health care. See
• inhabitants: shall mean the population of the political division referred to, as ascertained by the national census last completed before the time when such population is a material fact. See
• Interested individual: means :

• 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.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legislative body: includes boards of selectmen, aldermen, and village trustees. See
• Life sustaining treatment: means any medical intervention, including nutrition and hydration administered by medical means and antibiotics, which is intended to extend life and without which the principal or patient is likely to die. See
• Limited access highway: means a highway where the right of owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons to access, light, air, or view in connection with the highway is fully or partially controlled by public authority, in accordance with chapter 17 of this title. See
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member district: means either a town school district that is a member district as defined in section 702 (definitions) of this title or a town in a member district if the member district is itself a union elementary or union high school district, as applicable. See
• Mental health patient representative: means the mental health patient representative established by section 7253 of this title. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Necessity: means a reasonable need that considers the greatest public good and the least inconvenience and expense to the condemning party and to the property owner. See
• Nutrition and hydration administered by medical means: means the provision of food and water by means other than the natural ingestion of food or fluids by eating or drinking. See
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Ombudsman: means :

• Palliative care: means interdisciplinary care given to improve the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with a serious medical condition. See
• Person: means any individual, company, corporation, association, partnership, the U. See
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Person: includes a municipality or State agency. See
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Principal: means an adult who has executed an advance directive. See
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probate Division of the Superior Court designee: means a responsible, knowledgeable individual independent of a health care facility designated by the Probate Division of the Superior Court in the district where the principal resides or the county where the facility is located. See
• property owner: means a person who has a legal interest of record in the property taken or proposed to be taken. See
• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reasonably available: means able to be contacted with a level of diligence appropriate to the seriousness and urgency of a principal's health care needs, and willing and able to act in a timely manner considering the urgency of the principal's health care needs. See
• Registry: means a secure, web-based database created by the Commissioner to which individuals may submit an advance directive or information regarding the location of an advance directive that is accessible to principals and agents and, as needed, to individuals appointed to arrange for the disposition of remains, procurement organizations, health care providers, health care facilities, residential care facilities, funeral directors, crematory operators, cemetery officials, Probate Division of the Superior Court officials, and the employees thereof. See
• Residential care facility: means a residential care home or an assisted living residence as those terms are defined in 33 V. See
• resuscitation: includes chest compressions and mask ventilation; intubation and ventilation; defibrillation or cardioversion; and emergency cardiac medications provided according to the guidelines of the American Heart Association's Cardiac Life Support program. See
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• School board: means the board of school directors elected to manage the schools of a school district, the prudential committee of an incorporated school district, the supervisory union board of directors, and the supervisors of unorganized towns and gores. See
• School district: means a school district organized as a town school district, city school district, incorporated school district, or union school district, unless clearly inapplicable. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Education. See
• Secretary: means the head of the Agency who shall be a member of the Governor's Cabinet responsible directly to the Governor for the administration of the Agency. See
• Selectboard: includes village trustees and city councils. See
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surrogate: means an interested individual who provides or withholds, pursuant to subchapter 2 of this chapter, informed consent for a do-not-resuscitate order or a clinician order for life-sustaining treatment. See
• Suspend: means to terminate the applicability of all or part of an advance directive for a specific period of time or while a specific condition exists. See
• town: means a city or incorporated village. See
• Town: includes incorporated villages and cities. See
• Town: includes incorporated villages and cities. See
• town clerk: means the elected clerk of that member district. See
• town school district: means a city school district, or incorporated school district, and does not mean a union school district. See
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• union district: includes a union elementary school district, union high school district, and unified union school district unless the context clearly limits it to fewer than all options. See
• Union school district: means a municipality formed under the provisions of this chapter that is governed by a single publicly elected board and that is responsible for the education of students residing in two or more towns in the grades for which the district is organized by: