Power of Attorney and Health Care – General – Nevada
A power of attorney containing the power to convey any real property as agent or attorney for the owner or to execute any conveyance where real property is conveyed or may be affected, must be acknowledged, or proved and certified, and recorded as other conveyances where real property is conveyed or affected are required to be acknowledged, or proved and certified, and recorded.
No power of attorney which is certified and recorded in the statutorily prescribed manner is deemed to be revoked by any act of the party by whom it was executed until the instrument containing the revocation is deposited for record in the same office in which the instrument containing the power is recorded.
When a principal designates another as his attorney in fact by a written power of attorney, and the power of attorney contains the words “This power of attorney is not affected by disability of the principal,” or “This power of attorney becomes effective upon the disability of the principal,” or similar words showing the intent of the principal that the authority conferred may be exercised notwithstanding the principal’s disability, the authority of the attorney in fact may be exercised as provided in the power of attorney on behalf of the principal notwithstanding later disability or incapacity of the principal or uncertainty as to whether the principal is dead or alive.
Acts done by an attorney in fact pursuant to a power of attorney during any period of disability or incompetence or uncertainty whether the principal is dead or alive have the same effect and inure to the benefit of and bind the principal or his guardian or heirs, devisees and personal representative as if the principal were alive, competent and not disabled.
If a guardian is appointed for the principal, an attorney in fact, during the continuance of the appointment, shall account to the guardian rather than the principal. The guardian has the same power the principal would have had if he were not disabled or incompetent to revoke, suspend or terminate all or any part of the power of attorney.
The death, disability or incompetence (absent appointment of a guardian) of any principal who has executed a power of attorney does not revoke authority of an attorney in fact who, without actual knowledge of the death, disability or incompetence of the principal, acts in good faith under the power of attorney. Any valid and enforceable action so taken binds the principal and his heirs, devisees and personal representatives.
An affidavit executed by the attorney in fact stating that he did not have, at the time of doing an act pursuant to the power of attorney, actual knowledge of the revocation or termination of the power of attorney by death, disability or incompetence is, in the absence of a showing of fraud or bad faith, conclusive proof of the non-revocation or non-termination of the power at that time.
If the exercise of the power requires execution and delivery of any instrument which is recordable, the affidavit when authenticated for record is likewise recordable.
DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY
FOR HEALTH CARE DECISIONS
(§§ 162A.700 through 162A.865)
General Information
Any adult person may execute a power of attorney for a disabled principal enabling the attorney in fact named in the power of attorney to make decisions concerning health care for the principal who executed the power of attorney if that principal becomes incapable of giving informed consent concerning such decisions.
Attorney in Fact
A principal may not name as attorney in fact in a power of attorney:
His provider of health care;
An employee of his provider of health care;
An operator of a health care facility; or
An employee of a health care facility.
A principal may name as attorney in fact any person listed above if that person is the spouse, legal guardian or next of kin of the principal.
Form
The form of a power of attorney for a disabled principal must be in substantially the statutory form.
Acknowledgment and Witnesses
The principal’s signature on the power of attorney must:
Be acknowledged before a notary public; or
Witnessed by two adult witnesses who know the principal personally.
Neither of the witnesses to a principal’s signature may be:
A provider of health care;
An employee of a provider of health care;
An operator of a health care facility;
An employee of a health care facility; or
The attorney in fact.
At least one of the witnesses to a principal’s signature must be a person who is:
Not related to the principal by blood, marriage or adoption; and
To the best of the witnesses knowledge, not entitled to any part of the estate of the principal upon the death of the principal.
Prohibited Acts
An attorney in fact may not consent to:
Commitment or placement of the principal in a facility for treatment of mental illness;
Convulsive treatment;
Psychosurgery;
Sterilization;
Abortion;
Aversive intervention, as that term is defined in NRS § 449.766; or
Any other treatment to which the principal, in the power of attorney, states that the attorney in fact may not consent.
Duty of Attorney in Fact
An attorney in fact must make decisions concerning the use or nonuse of life sustaining treatment which conform to the known desires of the principal. The principal may make these desires known in the power of attorney.
Designation of Alternate Attorney in Fact
A principal may designate an alternate attorney in fact.
If a principal designates his spouse as the attorney in fact or as an alternate, that designation is automatically revoked if the principal and his spouse are divorced.
Execution of a power of attorney automatically revokes any previous power of attorney.
A power of attorney remains valid indefinitely unless:
The principal designates a shorter period for which it is to remain valid; or
It is revoked.
If a power of attorney expires while the principal is unable to make decisions concerning health care, the power of attorney remains valid until the principal is again able to make such decisions.
UNIFORM ACT ON RIGHTS OF THE TERMINALLY ILL
(§§ 449.535 through 449.690)
Selected Definitions
A “declaration” is a writing executed in accordance with the requirements of NRS 449.600.
A “qualified patient” is a person eighteen or more years of age who has executed a declaration and who has been determined by the attending physician to be in a terminal condition.
“Life sustaining treatment” is a medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a patient, serves only to prolong the process of dying.
A “terminal condition” is an incurable and irreversible condition that, without the administration of life sustaining treatment, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short time.
Declaration
A person of sound mind and 18 or more years of age may execute a declaration governing the withholding or withdrawal of life sustaining treatment and may designate another natural person of sound mind and 18 or more years of age to make decisions governing the withholding or withdrawal of life sustaining treatment.
The declaration must be signed by the declarant, or another at the declarant’s direction, and attested by two witnesses.
A declaration becomes operative when it is communicated to the attending physician and the declarant is determined by the attending physician to be in a terminal condition and no longer able to make decisions regarding administration of life sustaining treatment. When the declaration becomes operative, the attending physician and other providers of health care shall act in accordance with its provisions and with the instructions of a person designated pursuant to NRS 449.600 to make decisions for the patient.
Form
A declaration is not required to be in the statutory form.
Revocation
A declarant may revoke a declaration at any time and in any manner, without regard to his mental or physical condition.
A revocation is effective upon its communication to the attending physician or other provider of health care by the declarant or a witness to the revocation.
An attending physician or other provider of health care shall make the revocation a part of the declarant’s medical record.
Consent By Others
The authority to consent or to withhold consent may be exercised by the following persons, in order of priority:
The spouse of the patient;
An adult child of the patient or, if there is more than one adult child, a majority of the adult children who are reasonably available for consultation;
The parents of the patient;
An adult sibling of the patient or, if there is more than one adult sibling, a majority of the adult siblings who are reasonably available for consultation; or
The nearest other adult relative of the patient by blood or adoption who is reasonably available for consultation.
If a class entitled to decide whether to consent is not reasonably available for consultation and competent to decide, or declines to decide, the next class is authorized to decide, but an equal division in a class does not authorize the next class to decide.
A decision to grant or withhold consent must be made in good faith. A consent is not valid if it conflicts with the expressed intention of the patient.
A decision of the attending physician acting in good faith that a consent is valid or invalid is conclusive.
Pregnancy
Life sustaining treatment must not be withheld or withdrawn pursuant to this section from a patient known to the attending physician to be pregnant so long as it is probable that the fetus will develop to the point of live birth with continued application of life sustaining treatment.
ANATOMICAL GIFTS
(Chapter 45, Article 43, §§ 451.500 through 451.590)
Definitions
A “document of gift” is a card, a statement imprinted on a driver’s license or identification card, a will, or other writing used to make an anatomical gift.
A “donor” is a person who makes an anatomical gift of all or part of his body.
Anatomical Gifts
Any person may:
make an anatomical gift for any of the purposes stated in subsection 1 of NRS 51.560;
Limit an anatomical gift to one or more of those purposes; or
Refuse to make an anatomical gift.
Except as otherwise provided (see below), an anatomical gift may be made only by a document of gift signed by the donor.
If a donor:
Cannot sign, the document of gift must be signed by another person and by two witnesses, all of whom have signed at the direction and in the presence of the donor and of each other and state that it has been so signed.
Is less than 18 years of age, the document of gift must also be signed by two witnesses, one of whom is a parent or guardian of the donor and consents to the donation, at the direction and in the presence of the donor and of each other and state that it has been so signed.
If the donor is less than 12 years of age, the document of gift must be signed by a parent or guardian of the donor, on behalf of the donor, and two witnesses at the direction and in the presence of the parent or guardian and of each other and state that it has been so signed. The document is not required to be signed by the donor.
Amendment and Revocation
Except as otherwise provided (see below), a donor may amend or revoke an anatomical gift, not made by will, only by:
A signed statement;
An oral statement made in the presence of two persons;
Any form of communication during a terminal illness or injury addressed to a physician; or
The delivery of a signed statement to a specified donee to whom a document of gift had been delivered.
Except as otherwise provided (see below), a donor who is less than 18 years of age may, with the consent of his parent or guardian, amend or revoke an anatomical gift, not made by will, by:
A signed statement;
An oral statement made in the presence of two persons;
Any form of communication during a terminal illness or injury addressed to a physician; or
The delivery of a signed statement to a specified donee to whom a document of gift had been delivered.
A donor who is less than 12 years of age may not amend or revoke an anatomical gift. The parent or guardian who made the gift on behalf of the donor may amend or revoke an anatomical gift, not made by will, only by:
A signed statement;
An oral statement made in the presence of two persons;
Any form of communication during a terminal illness or injury addressed to a physician; or
The delivery of a signed statement to a specified donee to whom a document of gift had been delivered.
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