New York – A bill drafted by Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D- Far Rockaway) has passed the NYS State legislature. This vital amendment to the state’s Public Health Law, ensuring that patients in the end stages of life will be informed of all their options, including their right to ongoing medical treatments as well as palliative care.
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“I am thrilled that the first law I was able to draft and pass as a member of the New York State Assembly addresses sensitive end of life issues,” said Assemblyman Goldfeder. “I thank Dr. Yashar Hirshaut and Agudath Israel for their collaboration in crafting a law that would respect religious concerns of every community and offer patients comprehensive options and opportunities for treatment.”
Agudath Israel of America, which worked closely with Assemblyman Goldfeder and advocated for the amendment, hailed the development as “a major breakthrough in our efforts to protect the rights of patients to receive medical treatment in accordance with halacha.”
This bill affects patients who are diagnosed with a terminal illness with a prognosis to live only up to six months. Under the earlier version of the law, health care providers were required to inform such patients of their right to palliative care – but not of the option of ongoing, aggressive medical treatment of their condition.
The amended version of the law will now require all such options be discussed with the patient. Upon being presented – as per the new law – with the options of both palliative care and aggressive treatment to sustain life for as long as possible, the patient can then consult with his rabbi and opt for the halachically recommended course of action.
The newly amended law will deliver the message to health practitioners that there is more than one option for patients facing terminal illness, and will ensure that patients are given a choice of medical care that respects their culture and religious and personal beliefs.
The amendment will now be presented to Governor Cuomo for his approval and enactment into law.
Congratulations to Phil Goldfeder for sponsoring this bill and working together with his colleagues to help offset the current mindset re: end-of-life care and require that patients be informed of the option to receive aggressive and not just the option to have their lives shortened.
As Mark Kurzmann Esq and I pointed out in a recent opinion piece in AMl, members of our community have to act to protect themselves and their loved ones given the dramatically changing approaches to end-of-life care (fueled no doubt by financial considerations).
Steps you can take:
1) Sign a document designating a trusted family member or close friend as your health care proxy, enabling that person to make any and all health care decisions should you become incapacitated for any reason (car accident, anesthesia, stroke), until you regain consciousness. There are health care proxy forms which protect members of our community, by using special legal terminology, available from Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union. Every adult you know should complete this simple document. File a copy online and keep an original. Make sure to give a copy to the hospital to be put into the chart.
2) Prepare a financial power of attorney, giving someone the legal right to deposit checks, make payments on your behalf, authorize Medicare and Medicare expenditures, and the like, in the event you are incapacitated, or unavailable.
3) Prepare a will (which is for after you die, whereas the first two documents relate to when you are alive). That will should include a statement that you want your body to be treated in strict accordance with orthodox Jewish law (no autopsy, no cremation, etc).
Also, you may wish to consult with your rabbi, make sure he is comfortable doing so, and then consider either putting his name down as the health care proxy, or designating him as the rabbi you wish to be consulted re: health care decision making.
Realize that the person who is designated to be your health care proxy may be subject to a lot of pressure from doctors, nurses, administrators, and other hospital personnel to agree to terminating life-support (which would shorten your life and is to my knowledge always completely forbidden according to Jewish law).
Don’t assume that your proxy not be subject to such pressure in a “Jewish” hospital or by frum professionals and family.
There has been a sea change in Western society’s view of end-of-life care. We are not immune to this change in values.