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Summit Statement
Summit Calls for Legislative Action on the Family Health Care
Decisions Act
June 5, 2002
New York State is one of a handful of states with law that does not
recognize the authority of families to make medical decisions for patients
who lack decisional capacity, unless the patient previously appointed a
health care agent. This severely constrained decisional authority of
families represents a troubling gap between current New York law and a
broad ethical and legal consensus that families should be expressly
entrusted and empowered to make such decisions based on a careful
assessment of the patient's wishes and best interests.
On May 29-31, 2002, the Center for Bioethics and Humanities of SUNY
Upstate
Medical University convened a summit of bioethicists, physicians, lawyers,
health policy experts, clergy, and patient advocates to address this
pressing problem. This group included experts from nine medical schools
across New York State. The undersigned participants in this summit
unanimously resolved the following:
1. Current New York law regarding medical decisions for decisionally
incapacitated patients without health care agents often leads to
substandard and, at times, harmful medical care. In some cases, patients
receive unwanted or medically inappropriate treatment, resulting in
substantial physical suffering. In other cases, the lack of family
authority to make health care decisions impedes the delivery of medically
beneficial treatment. Decisionally incapacitated patients without family
or friends to act as surrogates are at equal, and perhaps greater, risk of
receiving non-beneficial, inappropriate, and possibly harmful
treatment.
2. There is an urgent need to enact legislation, such as the Family
Health Care Decisions Act, to bring New York law in line with the best
medical practice, established ethical principles, and the law in nearly
every other state. The Family Health Care Decisions Act enables family
members to make medical decisions, including forgoing life-sustaining
treatment in medically and ethically appropriate circumstances. This bill
also provides an appropriate mechanism for making healthcare decisions for
incapacitated patients without family or friends.
We call on members of the Legislature to enact, and the Governor to sign,
the Family Health Care Decisions Act, ensuring that medical decisions for
patients who cannot decide for themselves are made by the families and
loved ones who know them best.
Sincerely,
Norman Cantor, JD
Rutgers School of Law at Newark
Jack Coulehan, MD
SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine
Kathy Faber-Langendoen, MD
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Joseph J. Fins, MD, FACP
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Jack Freer, MD, FACP
SUNY University at Buffalo School of
Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Samuel Gorovitz, PhD
NY Task Force on Life and the Law
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse University
Jane Greenlaw, JD
NY Task Force on Life and the Law
University of Rochester School of
Medicine and Dentistry
Alice Herb, JD, LLM
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Maddy Jacobs, MPA
Partnership for Caring
Larry Kotok, DD
Jewish Family Concerns
S. Van McCrary, PhD, JD, MPH
SUNY at Stony Brook School of
Medicine
Peter Millock, JD
Nixon Peabody LLP
Jean Murphy, JD
Friends and Relatives of Institutionalized
Aged (FRIA)
Robert S. Olick, JD, PhD
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Kevin O'Rourke, OP
Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola
University
Joel Potash, MD
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Saint Joseph's Hospital
Rosamond Rhodes, PhD
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Wayne Shelton, PhD, MSW
Albany Medical College
Eugenia Siegler, MD
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Robert Swidler, JD
Northeast Health
Peter Williams, PhD, JD
SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine
David Wollner, MD, FACP
VA New York Harbor Healthcare System
Connie Zuckerman, JD
Attorney/Bioethics Consultant
*institutional affiliations given for purposes of identification only
For more information, E-mail Family Decision Coalition
For questions about website, E-mail Jack Freer
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