Mutual Wills or Last Will and Testaments for Unmarried Persons living together with Minor Children
Note: This summary is not intended to be an all-inclusive
discussion of the law of wills in Iowa, but does contain basic and other
provisions. It does not discuss handwritten wills or wills where
the testator cannot sign his or her name.
DECLARATION (That Life Not Be Prolonged By Artificial Procedures)
STATUTORY REFERENCE
ALL REFERENCES ARE TO THE IOWA CODE
DECLARATION (That Life Not Be Prolonged By Artificial Procedures)
(144A.1 through 144A.12)
An adult is an individual eighteen years of age or older.
A declaration is a document executed in accordance with the requirements of section 144A.3.
A health care provider is 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.
A life sustaining procedure is any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention which meets both of the following requirements:
Utilizes mechanical or artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a spontaneous vital function.
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.
A qualified patient is a patient who has executed a declaration and who has been determined by the attending physician to be in a terminal condition.
A terminal condition is 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.
A competent adult may execute a declaration at any time directing that life sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn. The declaration will be given operative effect only if the declarant's condition is determined to be terminal and the declarant is not able to make treatment decisions.
The declaration must be signed by the declarant or another person acting on behalf of the declarant at the direction of the declarant, must contain the date of its execution, and must be witnessed or acknowledged by one of the following methods:
Is signed by at least two individuals who, in the presence of each other and the declarant, witnessed the signing of the declaration by the declarant or by another person acting on behalf of the declarant at the declarant's direction. At least one of the witnesses must be an individual who is not a relative of the declarant by blood, marriage, or adoption within the third degree of consanguinity. The following individuals may not be witnesses for a declaration:
A health care provider attending the declarant on the date of execution.
An employee of a health care provider attending the declarant on the date of execution.
An individual who is less than eighteen years of age.
Is acknowledged before a notarial officer within this state.
A declaration may be revoked at any time and in any manner by which the declarant is able to communicate the declarant's intent to revoke, without regard to mental or physical condition.
A revocation is only effective as to the attending physician upon communication to such physician by the declarant or by another to whom the revocation was communicated.
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