144C.2 Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Adult” means a person who is married or who is eighteen years of age or older.

2. “Adult day services program” means adult day services program as defined in section 231D.1.

3. “Assisted living program” means an assisted living program under chapter 231C.

4. “Ceremony” means a formal act or set of formal acts established by custom or authority to commemorate a decedent.

5. “Child” means a son or daughter of a person, whether by birth or adoption.

6. “Decedent” means a deceased adult.

7. “Declarant” means a competent adult who executes a declaration pursuant to this chapter.

8. “Declaration” means a written instrument that is executed by a declarant in accordance with the requirements of this chapter, and that names a designee who shall have the sole responsibility and discretion for making decisions concerning the final disposition of the declarant’s remains and the ceremonies planned after the declarant’s death.

9. “Designee” means a competent adult designated under a declaration who shall have the sole responsibility and discretion for making decisions concerning the final disposition of the declarant’s remains and the ceremonies planned after the declarant’s death.

10. “Elder group home” means elder group home as defined in section 231B.1.

11. “Final disposition” means the burial, interment, cremation, removal from the state, or other disposition of remains.

12. “Health care facility” means health care facility as defined in section 135C.1.

13. “Health care provider” means health care provider as defined in section 144A.2.

14. “Hospital” means hospital as defined in section 135B.1.

15. “Interested person” means a decedent’s spouse, parent, grandparent, adult child, adult sibling, adult grandchild, or a designee.

16. “Licensed hospice program” means a licensed hospice program as defined in section 135J.1.

17. “Reasonable under the circumstances” means consideration of what is appropriate in relation to the declarant’s finances, cultural or family customs, and religious or spiritual beliefs. “Reasonable under the circumstances” may include but is not limited to consideration of the declarant’s preneed funeral, burial, or cremation plan, and known or reasonably ascertainable creditors of the declarant.

18. “Remains” means the body or cremated remains of a decedent.

19. a. “Third party” means a person who is requested to dispose of remains by an adult with the right to dispose of a decedent’s remains under section 144C.5 or assist with arrangements for ceremonies planned after the declarant’s death.

b. “Third party” includes but is not limited to a funeral director, funeral establishment, cremation establishment, cemetery, the state medical examiner, or a county medical examiner.

2008 Acts, ch 1051, §7, 22; 2009 Acts, ch 133, §45; 2017 Acts, ch 30, §2, 4

2017 amendment to subsection 8 applies to declarations executed on or after July 1, 2017; 2017 Acts, ch 30, §4