{"data":{"id":"us-ar/ark.-code-ann.-20-17-201","jurisdiction":"us-ar","citation":"Ark. Code Ann. § 20-17-201","heading":"Definitions","body":"As used in this subchapter: (1) \"Attending physician\" means the physician who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient; (2) (A) \"Declaration\" means a writing executed in accordance with the requirements of § 20-17-202(a) . (B) \"Declaration\" is an advance directive under § 20-6-102 ; (3) \"Healthcare provider\" means a person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession; (4) \"Healthcare proxy\" is a person eighteen (18) years old or older appointed by the patient as attorney-in-fact to make healthcare decisions including the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment if a qualified patient, in the opinion of the attending physician, is permanently unconscious, incompetent, or otherwise mentally or physically incapable of communication; (5) \"Life-sustaining treatment\" means any medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or to maintain the patient in a condition of permanent unconsciousness; (6) \"Permanently unconscious\" means a lasting condition, indefinitely without change in which thought, feeling, sensations, and awareness of self and environment are absent; (7) \"Person\" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision or agency, or any other legal or commercial entity; (8) \"Physician\" means an individual licensed to practice medicine in this state; (9) \"Qualified patient\" means a patient eighteen (18) or more years of age who has executed a declaration or appointed a healthcare proxy and who has been determined to be in a terminal condition or in a permanently unconscious state by the attending physician and another qualified physician who has examined the patient; (10) \"State\" means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and (11) \"Terminal condition\" means an incurable and irreversible condition that, without the administration of life-sustaining treatment, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short time. Amended by Act 2017, No. 974,§ 4, eff. 8/1/2017. Acts 1987, No. 713, § 1; 1999, No. 1536, § 1.\n\nAs used in this subchapter:\n\n(1) \"Attending physician\" means the physician who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient;\n\n(2) (A) \"Declaration\" means a writing executed in accordance with the requirements of § 20-17-202(a) . (B) \"Declaration\" is an advance directive under § 20-6-102 ;\n\n(A) \"Declaration\" means a writing executed in accordance with the requirements of § 20-17-202(a) .\n\n(B) \"Declaration\" is an advance directive under § 20-6-102 ;\n\n(3) \"Healthcare provider\" means a person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession;\n\n(4) \"Healthcare proxy\" is a person eighteen (18) years old or older appointed by the patient as attorney-in-fact to make healthcare decisions including the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment if a qualified patient, in the opinion of the attending physician, is permanently unconscious, incompetent, or otherwise mentally or physically incapable of communication;\n\n(5) \"Life-sustaining treatment\" means any medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or to maintain the patient in a condition of permanent unconsciousness;\n\n(6) \"Permanently unconscious\" means a lasting condition, indefinitely without change in which thought, feeling, sensations, and awareness of self and environment are absent;\nng treatment\" means any medical procedure or intervention that, when administered to a qualified patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying or to maintain the patient in a condition of permanent unconsciousness;\n\n(6) \"Permanently unconscious\" means a lasting condition, indefinitely without change in which thought, feeling, sensations, and awareness of self and environment are absent;\n\n(7) \"Person\" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision or agency, or any other legal or commercial entity;\n\n(8) \"Physician\" means an individual licensed to practice medicine in this state;\n\n(9) \"Qualified patient\" means a patient eighteen (18) or more years of age who has executed a declaration or appointed a healthcare proxy and who has been determined to be in a terminal condition or in a permanently unconscious state by the attending physician and another qualified physician who has examined the patient;\n\n(10) \"State\" means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and\n\n(11) \"Terminal condition\" means an incurable and irreversible condition that, without the administration of life-sustaining treatment, will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within a relatively short time.","path":["AR Code","Title 20","Chapter 17","Subchapter 2"],"source_url":"https://oss-data-us.vaquill.ai/v2026.08/us_ar_statutes.parquet","current_through":"2026-08-14","vintage":"open-us-law v2026.08, retrieved 2026-09-14","retrieved_at":"2026-09-14T18:32:41Z","sha256":"0f8dd80e7d019e8591b199bbebb543bc13e3e714c2fd2405cdc881b4c01bdfa9","source_id":"us-ar","stale":false,"prev":"us-ar/ark.-code-ann.-20-17-107","next":"us-ar/ark.-code-ann.-20-17-202"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}