1. (a) The desires of a qualified patient shall at all times supersede the effect of the declaration.
2. (b) If the qualified patient is incompetent at the time of the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures, a declaration executed in accordance with § 7-622 is presumed to be valid. For the purpose of this subchapter, a physician or health facility may presume in the absence of actual notice to the contrary that an individual who executed a declaration was of sound mind when it was executed. The fact of an individual’s having executed a declaration shall not be considered as an indication of a declarant’s mental incompetency.

History

Feb. 25, 1982, D.C. Law 4-69, § 7, 28 DCR 5047

Prior Codifications

1981 Ed., § 6-2426.