Some hospitals and doctors accepted the word of relatives who said things like, “I talked to my mother, and she said she never wanted to be on a ventilator.” Others, however, refused to withhold treatment without written documents like a health care proxy, a do-not-resuscitate order or a living will. Until now, advocates of the bill said, New York State had one of the harshest standards for determining whether to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment of an incapacitated patient.Ĭase law based on two court decisions from the 1980s held that there had to be “clear and convincing evidence” of what the patient would have wanted. The law also allows the surrogates to consider not just the patient’s wishes, but also - if those wishes cannot be known - the patient’s best interests.įor years, legislators wrangled over the bill: Some insisted that it include language protecting the fetus of an incapacitated pregnant woman others argued over whether to include domestic partners as decision-makers and some debated when food or water could be withheld in making health care decisions, including end-of-life decisions. The bill sets up an order for who is responsible for such decisions, ranking spouses and domestic partners first in a hierarchy of surrogates (unless there is a court-appointed guardian), followed by children, parents, siblings and close friends.
Paterson signed a law providing a road map for such matters. It took more than 17 years for New York to answer the question, but on Tuesday, Gov.
It is one of those medical quandaries often faced by families dealing with older and dying parents: Who makes decisions for patients who cannot make their own and have not left written instructions?
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