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2009 SESSION

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SB 1142 Advance medical directives; revises Health Care Decisions Act to clarify process.

Introduced by: Mary Margaret Whipple | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Advance medical directives. Revises the Health Care Decisions Act to (i) allow a person to make a written advance directive to specify health care the declarant does or does not authorize, appoint an agent to make health care decisions for the declarant, and specify an anatomical gift; (ii) clarify the process for determining a patient to be incapable of making an informed decision regarding health care; (iii) require that determinations of incapacity be made by two physicians, or one physician and one licensed clinical psychologist, one of whom is not otherwise involved in the care of the patient; (iv) allow any one physician to declare that a patient is again capable of making an informed decision; (v) clarify the authority of an agent named in an advance directive, or a person otherwise given authority to make medical decisions for an incompetent patient, including authority to admit the declarant to a facility for mental health treatment for a period not to exceed 10 days and to authorize participation by the declarant in a health care study approved by an institutional review board or research review committee; and (vi) determine when a physician may treat a patient over his protests. This bill provides that a person who willfully conceals, cancels, defaces, obliterates, damages, falsifies, or forges an advance directive or revocation of an advance directive of another shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.  Where such action causes life-prolonging procedures to be utilized in contravention of the previously expressed intent of the declarant, such person shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, and where such action directly causes life-prolonging procedures to be withheld in contravention of the previously expressed intent of the declarant or death to be hastened, the person shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony. This bill incorporates SB 1051. This bill is identical to HB 2396.


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