| NY Family Health Care Decisions Act |
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Give three cheers for New York, we finally passed the FHCDA! AtMP's unmarried constituency pays a lot of attention to hospital rights (a catch-all term for people’s ability to visit and make medical decisions for each other in emergency situations). People are shocked to discover that New Yorkers have fewer medical decision-making rights than most other Americans. A proposal called the Family Health Care Decisions Act would fix this situation. New Yorkers are urging the State Senate to pass the act. AtMP presented recommendations for making FHCDA even stronger in Albany in late April, 2009. Hospital rights in NY must be gained through law, not marriageAdvocates of marriage equality talk about health care decision making as if it depends on the right to marry. For example, a leading NY marriage equality web page says “We are routinely denied access to such fundamental protections as medical decision-making authority.” The linkage of medical decision making to marriage is misleading. Married New Yorkers do not have the right to make medical decisions for their spouses in the absence of written directives, except in ‘do not resuscitate’ situations. Neither parents, siblings nor close friends have this right – it does not exist in NY State. (Of course, all competent NY adults do have the right to designate health care proxies and to choose whether to have extraordinary resuscitation using state-approved documentation. Unfortunately, few New Yorkers do the paperwork. And, unmarried New Yorkers have great protections for hospital visitation.)
For further legislative updates, visit the Unmarried Blog.
*Last Updated: 2/26/10 |
