West Virginia Code 16-19-20 – Effect of anatomical gift on advance health-care directive
(a) In this section:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 16-19-20
- Agent: means an individual:
(1) Authorized by a medical power of attorney to make health care decisions on behalf of a prospective donor. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body, to take effect after the donor's death, for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- Donor: means an individual whose body or part is the subject of an anatomical gift. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Part: means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Physician: means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under the law of any state. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- 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
- Procurement organization: means an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Prospective donor: means an individual who is dead or near death and has been determined by a procurement organization to have a part that could be medically suitable for transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Reasonably available: means able to be contacted by a procurement organization without undue effort and willing and able to act in a timely manner consistent with existing medical criteria necessary for the making of an anatomical gift. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
- Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See West Virginia Code 16-19-3
(1) "Advance health-care directive" means a medical power of attorney or a record signed or authorized by a prospective donor containing the prospective donor's direction concerning a health-care decision for the prospective donor.
(2) "Declaration" means a record signed by a prospective donor specifying the circumstances under which a life support system may be withheld or withdrawn from the prospective donor.
(3) "Health-care decision" means any decision regarding the health care of the prospective donor.
(b) If a prospective donor has a declaration or advance health care directive, the terms of which are in conflict with the express or implied terms of a potential anatomical gift with regard to administration of measures necessary to ensure the medical suitability of a part for transplantation or therapy, the attending physician and the prospective donor shall confer to resolve the conflict.
(1) If the prospective donor is incapable of resolving the conflict, an agent acting under the prospective donor's declaration or directive, or, if none or the agent is not reasonably available, another person authorized by law other than this article to make health-care decisions on behalf of the prospective donor, shall act for the donor to resolve the conflict as quickly as possible.
(2) A procurement organization and any person authorized to make an anatomical gift on behalf of a prospective donor pursuant to section nine of this article shall provide any information relevant to the resolution of the conflict.
(3) Pending resolution of the conflict, measures necessary to ensure the medical suitability of a part may not be withheld or withdrawn from the prospective donor unless doing so is contraindicated by appropriate end-of-life care.