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Case Law

Other states permit surrogate decision making because of the case law in those states, or with specific statutes. Below are some examples of such statutes. There are also some states in which recent court rulings have affected this process.

A case of related interest in California is Conservatorship of Wendland, discussed here by attorney Lawrence Nelson. Also, see ACLU article, and for an opposing view: Robert's Legacy. Other Wendland articles are at: Wendland links page.

A Wisconsin case, Spahn v. Eisenberg, 543 N.W.2d 485 (Wis. 1997)--also in PDF-- and a Kentucky case, DeGrella v. Elston, 858 S.W.2d 698 (Ky. 1993). raise similar issues.

Statutes

• New Mexico has enacted the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act. Sample forms are available from the UNM's Health Science Center Ethics Program Further information about the UHCDA and Uniform Laws are available from University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).
• The Texas Advance Directive Law listed here includes a FAQ prepared by Linda Rushing, Associate Director Texas Conference of Catholic Health Facilities.
• Illinois Health Care Surrogate Act is available at Illinois Complied Statues site. Kevin O'Rourke, OP, Former Director of the Center for Health Care Ethics, St. Louis University Medical Center, discusses the Illinois Law from a Catholic perspective in his newsletter. Father O'Rourke says: "The fact that the Catholic Conference of Illinois promoted and supported this legislation is strong evidence, together with approval of DPA's by the Catholic Conferences in other states, that the Catholic tradition in regard to withdrawal of life support allows the same ethical norms to be applied to artificial hydration and nutrition as to other forms of life support. "
• Colorado Proxy decision-makers for medical treatment.
• The West Virginia Health Care Decisions Act from Center for Health Ethics and Law at West Virginia University.
• Comprehensive List from ABA The ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly has compiled a number of State Health Decisions Legislative Update which provides a listing of state statutes.