Delaware Code Title 16. Health and Safety § 5530. Definitions

(a) “Alternative decision maker” is a person identified to make decisions for an individual in that individual's best interest.  In the absence of an assigned legal guardian of person or applicable “advance health-care directive,” as defined under § 2502 of this title, or similar legal instrument, a default surrogate may be determined under § 2512 of this title.

(b) “Elective surgery” is a surgical medical or dental procedure, not including sterilization, for the purposes of nonlife-threatening treatment or diagnosis.

(c) “Informed consent” is the consent of a patient to the performance of health-care services by a health-care provider who has informed the patient both verbally and in writing, to an extent reasonably comprehensible to general lay understanding, of the nature of the proposed procedure or treatment and of the risks and alternatives to treatment which a reasonable patient would consider material to the decision whether or not to undergo the treatment.  The patient must understand the information provided by the health-care provider.

(d) “Persons receiving services from the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDDS)” shall mean, for the purposes of this subchapter, those persons served within the residential program of the Division.

(e) Repealed by 85 Laws 2025, ch. 91, § 7.