C.R.S. § 15-18.5-101 Legislative Declaration - Construction of Statute

• Library: Colorado Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through 2023 Regular and 1st Extraordinary Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: C.R.S. § 15-18.5-101

(1) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that:

(a) All adult persons have a fundamental right to make their own medical treatment and health-care benefit decisions, including decisions regarding medical treatment, artificial nourishment and hydration, and private or public health-care benefits;

(b) The lack of decisional capacity to provide informed consent to or refusal of medical treatment should not preclude such decisions from being made on behalf of a person who lacks such decisional capacity and who has no known advance medical directive, or whose wishes are not otherwise known; and

(c) The enactment of legislation to authorize proxy decision-makers to make medical treatment decisions and surrogate decision-makers to make health-care benefit decisions on behalf of persons lacking the decisional capacity to provide informed consent to or refusal of medical treatment is appropriate.