For the purposes of this chapter, the term: “Alternate standby guardian” means a person with all the rights, responsibilities, and qualifications of a standby guardian who acts as the standby guardian if the current or originally designated standby guardian repudiates the designation, becomes incapacitated, or dies. “Attending clinician” means a licensed physician or licensed nurse practitioner who: Has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of a designator; Shares the responsibility for the treatment and care of a designator, or is acting on behalf of the licensed physician or licensed nurse practitioner who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the designator; or Is familiar with the designator’s medical condition in cases where no licensed physician or licensed nurse practitioner has the responsibility for the treatment and care of a designator. “Child” means a person under 18 years of age. “Consent” means a written authorization signed by the designator. “Court” means the Domestic Relations Branch of the Family Division [Family Court] of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. “Debilitation” means those periods when a person cannot care for that person’s minor child as a result of a chronic condition caused by physical illness, disease, or injury from which, to a reasonable degree of probability, the designator may not recover. “Designation” means the written naming of a standby guardian by the designator. “Designator” means a custodial parent, including a person other than a parent who has physical custody of a child and who has been awarded legal custody or guardianship by a court, who has been diagnosed, in writing, by a licensed clinician to suffer from a chronic condition caused by injury, disease, or illness from which, to a reasonable degree of probability, the designator may not recover. “Determination of incapacity” means a written determination made by the attending clinician that, to a reasonable degree of certainty, a designator is chronically and substantially unable to understand the nature and consequences of decisions concerning the care of a minor child as a result of a mental or organic impairment and is consequently unable to care for the minor child. “Incapacity” means a chronic and substantial inability, as a result of a mental or organic impairment, to understand the nature and consequences of decisions concerning the care of a minor child, and a consequent inability to care for the minor child. “Parent” means the biological parent or adoptive mother or father of a child. “Standby guardian” means a person named by the designator to assume the duties of a legal custodian of a child upon the occurrence of a triggering event. “Triggering event” means any of the following 3 events: The designator’s debilitation, with the designator’s written acknowledgement of debilitation and consent to commencement of the standby guardianship; The designator’s incapacity as determined by an attending clinician; or The designator’s death.
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