North Carolina § 90-320 - General purpose of Article.

§ 90-320. General purpose of Article.

The General Assembly recognizes as a matter of public policy that an individual's rights include the right to a peaceful and natural death and that a patient or the patient's representative has the fundamental right to control the decisions relating to the rendering of the patient's own medical care, including the decision to have life-prolonging measures withheld or withdrawn in instances of a terminal condition. This Article is to establish an optional and nonexclusive procedure by which a patient or the patient's representative may exercise these rights. A military advanced medical directive executed in accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 1044 or other applicable law is valid in this State. Nothing in this Article shall be construed to authorize any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying. Nothing in this Article shall impair or supersede any legal right or legal responsibility which any person may have to effect the withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging measures in any lawful manner. In such respect the provisions of this Article are cumulative. History (1977, c. 815; 1979, c. 715, s. 1; 1983, c. 313, s. 1; 2007-502, s. 10.) Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2007-502, s. 10, effective October 1, 2007, in subsection (a), substituted "the patient's" for "his" in three places, substituted "life-prolonging measures" for "extraordinary means," and added the last sentence; substituted "life-prolonging measures" for "life-sustaining procedures" in subsection (b). Legal Periodicals. - For comment discussing North Carolina's Natural Death Act, see 14 Wake Forest L. Rev. 771 (1978). For survey of 1979 administrative law, see 58 N.C.L. Rev. 1185 (1980). For article, "Constitutional Development of Judicial Criteria in Right-To-Die Cases: From Brain Dead to Persistent Vegetative State," see 23 Wake Forest L. Rev. 721 (1988). For article, "The Elderly Incompetent: The Right to Die with Dignity," see 13 Campbell L. Rev. 57 (1990). For article, "The Limits of Advance Directives: A History and Assessment of the Patient Self-Determination Act," see 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 249 (1997). For note, "First Health Care Corp. v. Rettinger: Are Living Wills Dead in North Carolina?," see 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 591 (1997). For comment, "Compensating Post-Conception Prenatal Medical Malpractice While Respecting Life: A Recommendation to North Carolina Legislators," see 29 Campbell L. Rev. 761 (2007). For article, "Aid in Dying in North Carolina,” see 97 N.C. L. Rev. Addendum 1 (2019).