Assembly Bill A7178

2023-2024 Legislative Session

Restores medical futility as a basis for DNR

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Current 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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2023-A7178 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Senate Version of this Bill:
S2894
Current Committee:
Assembly Health
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: A1203, S5834
2021-2022: A204, S4685

2023-A7178 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Restores medical futility as a basis for DNR.

2023-A7178 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7178
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               May 12, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ -- read once and referred to the Commit-
   tee 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.
                                                            LBD05246-01-3
 A. 7178                             2
              

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