Except as otherwise provided, as used in this chapter:
1. "Adult" means an individual eighteen years of age or older.
2. "Attending physician" means the physician selected by, or assigned to, the patient who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient.
3. "Declaration" means a document executed in accordance with the requirements of section 144A.3.
4. "Health care provider" means a person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or in the practice of a profession.
5. "Life-sustaining procedure" means any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention which meets both of the following requirements:
a. Utilizes mechanical or artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a spontaneous vital function.
b. When applied to a patient in a terminal condition, would serve only to prolong the dying process.
"Life-sustaining procedure" does not include the provision of nutrition or hydration except when required to be provided parenterally or through intubation or the administration of medication or performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide comfort care or to alleviate pain.
6. "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery, osteopathy or osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state.
7. "Qualified patient" means a patient who has executed a declaration in accordance with this chapter and who has been determined by the attending physician to be in a terminal condition.
8. "Terminal condition" means an incurable or irreversible condition that, without the administration of life-sustaining procedures, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short period of time or a state of permanent unconsciousness from which, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, there can be no recovery.
85 Acts, ch 3, § 3; 92 Acts, ch 1132, § 1-3
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