Top 20 Death & Dying Legal Developments from 2019

There are so many new updates to The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking (Wolters Kluwer 2020). Here are some of them:

• Idaho’s first reported judicial decision on end-of-life decision making, finding the Idaho advance directive statute constitutional as it applies to pregnant women.

• An appellate ruling in California upholding most of the interdisciplinary team approach to medical decision making for unbefriended patients in long-term care facilities. 

• Promulgation of federal regulations that expand and protect statutory conscience rights in health care, including with respect to advance directives and medical aid in dying.

• Enactment of the Maine Death with Dignity Act and the New Jersey Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, bringing the number of U.S. MAID jurisdictions to ten.

• Expansion of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act to waive the 15-day waiting period for patients expected to die sooner than that. 

• Enhanced criminal penalties for assisted suicide in two states.

• The first enactment of a dementia-specific power of attorney for health care decisions that includes an end-of-life decisions addendum statement of desires permitting refusal of “food and water” by mouth. 

• Expanded access to and/or rights under advance directives in five states.

• Enactment of the another Supported Decision Making Act, as an alternative to guardianship and surrogate decisionmaking.

• Three additional Simon’s Laws requiring notification and/or consent before writing a pediatric DNR order.

• New POLST statutes in two states, and an expanded POLST statute in another.

• Additional safeguards for advance directives and surrogates in two states.

• Expanded surrogate lists and powers in four states.

• New or expanded advance directive registry statutes in four states.

• Statutory mandates to inform and educate appropriate patients about palliative care in two states.

• Establishment of palliative care and hospice advisory councils and task forces in five more states.