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

Article 23.

Right to Natural Death;Brain Death.

§ 90‑320.  Generalpurpose of Article.

(a)        The GeneralAssembly recognizes as a matter of public policy that an individual's rightsinclude the right to a peaceful and natural death and that a patient or thepatient's representative has the fundamental right to control the decisionsrelating to the rendering of the patient's own medical care, including thedecision to have life‑prolonging measures withheld or withdrawn ininstances of a terminal condition. This Article is to establish an optional andnonexclusive procedure by which a patient or the patient's representative mayexercise these rights. A military advanced medical directive executed inaccordance with 10 U.S.C. § 1044 or other applicable law is valid in thisState.

(b)        Nothing in thisArticle shall be construed to authorize any affirmative or deliberate act oromission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying. Nothingin this Article shall impair or supersede any legal right or legalresponsibility which any person may have to effect the withholding orwithdrawal of life‑prolonging measures in any lawful manner. In suchrespect the provisions of this Article are cumulative. (1977, c. 815; 1979, c. 715,s. 1; 1983, c. 313, s. 1; 2007‑502, s. 10.)