EDITORIAL: Law will let family make tough medical decisions

Deciding what medical treatments to allow - or not allow - for people who can't make those decisions themselves is a very tough call. Fortunately Albany has made it a bit easier for families in that dreadful situation.

The Family Health Care Decisions Act, recently signed into law, spells out who can make health care determinations for a person who is incapacitated and hasn't prepared any directive regarding his or her wishes. That includes painful decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

Individuals should take matters into their own hands by preparing a health care proxy in advance, clearly naming the person they want to make treatment choices for them if they no longer can.

But about 75,000 incapacitated people die in New York every year without a proxy. In that situation, state courts have ruled that life-sustaining treatment can't be withheld or withdrawn, absent clear and convincing evidence that the person would decline it if they could. As a result, people have sometimes been subjected to fruitless treatments that violated their wishes, values or religious beliefs.

The new law sets up a hierarchy to determine who can make those choices, from a guardian to a spouse or domestic partner, adult son or daughter, parent, adult brother or sister, some other relative or a close friend. Nothing can eliminate the anguish for people forced to make such profound decisions. But ensuring families are in control will help. hN