Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015

• Permanent Page URL

PART 8

Advance Healthcare Directives

Definitions — Part 8

82. In this Part—

“advance healthcare directive”—

(a) in relation to a person who has capacity, means an advance expression made by the person, in accordance with section 84 , of his or her will and preferences concerning treatment decisions that may arise in respect of him or her if he or she subsequently lacks capacity, and

(b) in relation to a designated healthcare representative, means the advance expression referred to in paragraph (a) under which the representative was designated as such representative,

which has not been revoked pursuant to section 84 (7);

“applicable”, in relation to an advance healthcare directive, shall be construed in accordance with section 85 ;

“designated healthcare representative”, in relation to a directive-maker, means the named individual designated, pursuant to section 87 , by the directive-maker, in his or her advance healthcare directive, to exercise the relevant powers;

“directive-maker”—

(a) in relation to an advance healthcare directive, means the person who made the directive, and

(b) in relation to a designated healthcare representative, means the person who made the advance healthcare directive under which the representative was designated as such representative;

“Minister” means the Minister for Health;

“relevant powers”, in relation to a designated healthcare representative, means—

(a) the power conferred on the representative under section 88 (1)(a), and

(b) the powers (if any) conferred on the representative in accordance with section 88 (1)(b);

“treatment”, in relation to a person, means an intervention that is or may be done for a therapeutic, preventative, diagnostic, palliative or other purpose related to the physical or mental health of the person, and includes life-sustaining treatment;

“valid”, in relation to an advance healthcare directive, shall be construed in accordance with section 85 ;

“writing” includes voice and video recording and speech recognition technologies.