Source: https://www.cadwalader.com/index.php?/resources/clients-friends-memos/hospital-and-nursing-home-ethics-committees-face-significant-new-responsibilities
Timestamp: 2018-04-22 23:53:47
Document Index: 351856869

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 29', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', 'Art. 29', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994', '§ 2994']

On June 1, 2010, the Family Health Care Decisions Act (the “FHCDA” or the “Act”) became effective in New York State.1 Proposed by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law in 1992, the Act effects sweeping changes to New York State’s laws on treatment decisions for patients in hospitals and nursing homes.2 Specifically, the FHCDA establishes a new Article 29-CC of the Public Health Law that covers treatment decisions, including decisions to forgo life-sustaining measures, for adults who lack the capacity to decide for themselves and have not signed an advance directive. The Act also covers decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment for children.
a) any pending consideration of a case concerning the patient, and for patients and persons on the surrogate list, information about the Ethics Committee’s procedures, composition, and function; and
b) the Ethics Committee’s response to the case, including a written statement of the reasons for approving or disapproving a surrogate’s decision to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment for a patient who is not terminally ill or permanently unconscious, or for a decision by a mature minor to forgo life-sustaining treatment.14
1 N.Y. Pub. Health Law, Art. 29-CC (McKinney 2010).
2 New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, When Others Must Choose: Deciding for Patients without Capacity (Mar. 1992).
3 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-o (McKinney 2010 & Supp. 2011).
4 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-d(1). Recognizing the continuing importance of New York’s health care proxy law, and the preference given to individuals appointed by adults to decide about treatment for them, the FHCDA specifies that, if an adult has executed a health care proxy, the person appointed as agent takes priority over those authorized by the FHCDA to make decisions. The health care agent does not appear on the FHCDA surrogate list; decisions by a health care agent are governed by New York’s health care proxy law. See N.Y. Pub. Health Law, Art. 29-C (McKinney 1990 & Supp. 2011).
5 For decision-making standards under the Act, see N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-d(4)-(5).
6 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-e. The Act covers all treatment decisions for adults, but only decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment for children.
7 See In re Storar, 52 N.Y.2d 363 (1981).
8 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-e(3). The Act defines an emancipated minor as an individual who is the parent of a child or is sixteen years of age or older and is living independently from his or her parents or guardian. N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-a(8).
9 See N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-m for provisions that govern Ethics Committee procedures, membership and responsibilities.
10 “Person Connected with the Case” is defined in the Act to include the patient, any member of the surrogate list, an attending physician, any other health or social service practitioner directly involved in the patient’s care, any duly authorized state agency, and the facility or regional director for a patient transferred from a mental hygiene or correctional facility. N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-a(26).
11 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-s.
12 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-s(1)(b).
13 See discussion, p. 3.
14 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-m(4)(b)(iii).
15 N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2994-m(6).