California Legal Codes and Statutes

Part 17 - LEGAL MENTAL CAPACITY

California Probate Code — §§ 810-813

Sections (4)

§ 810

Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 581, Sec. 19. Effective January 1, 1999.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a)For purposes of this part, there shall exist a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of proof that all persons have the capacity to make decisions and to be responsible for their acts or decisions.
(b)A person who has a mental or physical disorder may still be capable of contracting, conveying, marrying, making medical decisions, executing wills or trusts, and performing other

actions.

(c)A judicial determination that a person is totally without understanding, or is of unsound mind, or suffers from one or more mental deficits so substantial that, under the circumstances, the person should be deemed to lack the legal capacity to perform a specific act, should be based on evidence of a deficit in one or more of the person’s mental functions rather than on a diagnosis of a person’s mental or physical disorder.
§ 813

Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 178, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 1997.

(a)For purposes of a judicial determination, a person has the capacity to give informed consent to a proposed medical treatment if the person is able to do all of the following:
(1)Respond knowingly and intelligently to queries about that medical treatment.
(2)Participate in that treatment decision by means of a rational thought process.
(3)Understand all of the following items of minimum basic medical treatment information with respect to that treatment:
(A)The nature and seriousness of the illness, disorder, or defect that the person has.
(B)The nature of the medical treatment that is being recommended by the person’s health care providers.
(C)The probable degree and duration of any benefits and risks of any medical intervention that is being recommended by the person’s health care providers, and the consequences of lack of treatment.
(D)The nature, risks, and benefits of any reasonable alternatives.
(b)A person who has the capacity to give informed consent to a proposed medical treatment also has the

capacity to refuse consent to that treatment.