N.Y. Public Health Law § 2994-e: Decisions about life-sustaining treatment for minor patients

§ 2994-e. Decisions about life-sustaining treatment for minor

patients. 1. Authority of parent or guardian. The parent or guardian of

a minor patient shall have the authority to make decisions about

life-sustaining treatment, including decisions to withhold or withdraw

such treatment, subject to the provisions of this section and

subdivision five of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this

article.

2. Decision-making standards and procedures for minor patient. (a) The

parent or guardian of a minor patient shall make decisions in accordance

with the minor's best interests, consistent with the standards set forth

in subdivision four of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this

article, taking into account the minor's wishes as appropriate under the

circumstances.

(b) An attending practitioner, in consultation with a minor's parent

or guardian, shall determine whether a minor patient has decision-making

capacity for a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining

treatment. If the minor has such capacity, a parent's or guardian's

decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for the minor

may not be implemented without the minor's consent.

(c) Where a parent or guardian of a minor patient has made a decision

to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment and an attending

practitioner has reason to believe that the minor patient has a parent

or guardian who has not been informed of the decision, including a

non-custodial parent or guardian, an attending practitioner or someone

acting on his or her behalf, shall make reasonable efforts to determine

if the uninformed parent or guardian has maintained substantial and

continuous contact with the minor and, if so, shall make diligent

efforts to notify that parent or guardian prior to implementing the

decision.

3. Decision-making standards and procedures for emancipated minor

patient. (a) If an attending practitioner determines that a patient is

an emancipated minor patient with decision-making capacity and documents

the basis for that determination in the patient's medical record, the

patient shall have the authority to decide about life-sustaining

treatment. That authority shall include a decision to withhold or

withdraw life-sustaining treatment if an attending practitioner and the

ethics review committee determine that the decision accords with the

standards for surrogate decisions for adults, and the ethics review

committee approves the decision.

(b) If the hospital can with reasonable efforts ascertain the identity

of the parents or guardian of an emancipated minor patient and obtain

such parents' or guardian's contact information, the hospital shall

notify such persons, and document such notification in the patient's

medical record, prior to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining

treatment pursuant to this subdivision.