Senate Bill S4685

2021-2022 Legislative Session

Relates to restoring medical futility as a basis for DNR

download bill text pdf

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Assembly Committee


  • Introduced
    • In Committee Assembly
    • In Committee Senate
    • On Floor Calendar Assembly
    • On Floor Calendar Senate
    • Passed Assembly
    • Passed Senate
  • Delivered to Governor
  • Signed By Governor

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2021-S4685 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:
A204
Current Committee:
Assembly Codes
Law Section:
Public Health Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §§2994-d & 2994-g, Pub Health L; amd §1750-b, SCPA
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:
2013-2014: A9648
2015-2016: A6966
2017-2018: A3991
2019-2020: S5834, A1203
2023-2024: S2894, A7178

2021-S4685 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to restoring medical futility as a basis for DNR.

2021-S4685 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2021-S4685 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4685
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 8, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  RIVERA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
 
 AN ACT to amend the public health law and the surrogate's  court  proce-
   dure  act,  in  relation  to restoring medical futility as a basis for
   both surrogate consent to a do not resuscitate order and for a do  not
   resuscitate order for a patient without a surrogate
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Legislative findings. Under New York's former do not resus-
 citate (hereinafter "DNR") law, article 29-B of the public health law, a
 surrogate could consent to a DNR order if the patient  met  any  one  of
 four  clinical  criteria,  one  of which was a finding by two physicians
 that resuscitation was "medically futile," which  was  defined  to  mean
 that  resuscitation  "will  be  unsuccessful  in  restoring  cardiac and
 respiratory function or that the patient will experience repeated arrest
 in a short time period before death occurs." The  former  DNR  law  also
 allowed  a  DNR  order  to  be  entered for a patient who did not have a
 surrogate on that basis. That law applied  to  all  patients,  including
 developmentally disabled patients.
   In  2010,  the former DNR law was superseded by the Family Health Care
 Decisions Act (hereinafter "FHCDA") which established standards for  the
 withdrawal  or  withholding  of  a broad range of life-sustaining treat-
 ments. Accordingly, the FHCDA  did  not  have  a  standard  specifically
 relating to medically futile resuscitation. Similarly, Surrogate's Court
 Procedure  Act  (hereinafter  "SPCA")  §1750-b  does not have a standard
 specifically relating to medically  futile  resuscitation  for  develop-
 mentally disabled patients.
   The  legislature  finds that the broader FHCDA and SPCA §1750-b stand-
 ards are difficult to apply to situations in which  resuscitation  would
 be  medically  futile.  Accordingly,  this  bill restores the former DNR

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD00126-01-1
              

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