                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR CERTAIN PERSONS INCAPABLE OF GIVING INFORMED CONSENT (§
54.1-2970)

When a delay in treatment might adversely affect recovery, a licensed health
professional or licensed hospital shall not be subject to liability arising out
of a claim based on lack of informed consent or be prohibited from providing
surgical, medical or dental treatment to an individual who is receiving service
in a facility operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental
Services or who is receiving case management services from a community services
board or behavioral health authority and who is incapable of giving informed
consent to the treatment by reason of mental illness or intellectual disability
under the following conditions:

1. No legally authorized guardian or committee was available to give consent;

2. A reasonable effort is made to advise a parent or other next of kin of the
need for the surgical, medical or dental treatment;

3. No reasonable objection is raised by or on behalf of the alleged
incapacitated person; and

4. Two physicians, or in the case of dental treatment, two dentists or one
dentist and one physician, state in writing that they have made a good faith
effort to explain the necessary treatment to the individual, and they have
probable cause to believe that the individual is incapacitated and unable to
consent to the treatment by reason of mental illness or intellectual disability
and that delay in treatment might adversely affect recovery.
			The provisions of this section shall apply only to the treatment of physical
injury or illness and not to any treatment for a mental, emotional or
psychological condition.
			Treatment pursuant to this section of an individual&#8217;s mental, emotional
or psychological condition when the individual is unable to make an informed
decision and when no legally authorized guardian or committee is available to
provide consent shall be governed by regulations adopted by the State Board of
Behavioral Health and Developmental Services under &#xA7; 37.2-400.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 32-137.01; 1979, c. 212, § 54-325.2:1; 1988, c. 765;
1989, c. 591; 1997, c. 801; 2002, c. 80; 2009, cc. 813, 840; 2012, cc. 476, 507.