The Supreme Court ruling on Physician Assisted Suicide Cases has detailed information about the 9th and 2nd Circuit Court assisted suicide rulings, and their appeal in the US Supreme Court.
Health care providers, patients and families face a number of unique challenges in New York State. Case law regarding surrogate decision making and life-sustaining treatement is particularly problematic. Court of Appeals rulings require "clear and convincing" evidence that an incapcitated patient had specifically refused the treatment in question. The Court indicated that advance directives, including a Living Will can satisfy this requirement, if it is sufficiently specific.
The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law proposed legislative solutions to deal with this and other related dilemmas. The first proposal enacted into law was the Do Not Resuscitate Law. The next proposal to be passed was the Health Care Proxy Law. The remaining proposal to meet the needs of New York in this area is the Family Health Care Decisions Bill. This bill would fill in the gaps left by the DNR and Proxy Laws, since it would permit surrogate decisions to be made for incapacitated patients who have not executed a proxy. Partial resolution occured in 2003 when the Health Care Decisions Act for Persons with Mental Retardation (HCDA) went into effect. This law permits broader decision-making authority by guardians of mentally retarded persons under Article 17-A of the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act.
The 1994 Task Force report: When Death is Sought; Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context is available on-line via the Department of Health WWW Home Page.
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The 1997 Supplement to
When Death is Sought; Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context |
In the 105th session, legislation (S. 1345 and H.R. 2999 have been introduced which would amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to expand and clarify the requirements regarding advance directives.
In an attempt to undermine Oregon's assisted suicide law, Congress passed the "Pain Relief Promotion Act" (H.R. 2260) in the 106th session. This bill would impose stiff criminal penalties on physicians and other health care providers whose intent was to assist a suicide. Editiorials opposing the legislation were publised in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and Buffalo News. An Op-Ed by Jack Freer was published in the Western Journal of Medicine.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing 4/25/00 on the Pain Relief Promotion Act. The witness list and written testimony from the hearing are available at: http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/wl4252000.htm The statements made by Chairman Hatch and Ranking Minority Member Leahy at the 4/27 mark-up are available at: http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/ex4272000.htm#statements As of early November 2000, the bill was buried in the omnibus budget bill but that has yet to be negotiated with President Clinton, so the fate of this legislation is unclear.