Posted on 03/30/2005 9:30:39 AM PST by TheDon
CALIFORNIA CODES PROBATE CODE SECTION 3200-3212
3200. As used in this part:
(a) "Health care" means any care, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or otherwise affect a patient's physical or mental condition.
(b) "Health care decision" means a decision regarding the patient' s health care, including the following:
(1) Selection and discharge of health care providers and institutions.
(2) Approval or disapproval of diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, programs of medication.
(3) Directions to provide, withhold, or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
(c) "Health care institution" means an institution, facility, or agency licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business.
(d) "Patient" means an adult who does not have a conservator of the person and for whom a health care decision needs to be made.
3201. (a) A petition may be filed to determine that a patient has the capacity to make a health care decision concerning an existing or continuing condition.
(b) A petition may be filed to determine that a patient lacks the capacity to make a health care decision concerning specified treatment for an existing or continuing condition, and further for an order authorizing a designated person to make a health care decision on behalf of the patient.
(c) One proceeding may be brought under this part under both subdivisions (a) and (b).
3202. The petition may be filed in the superior court of any of the following counties:
(a) The county in which the patient resides.
(b) The county in which the patient is temporarily living.
(c) Such other county as may be in the best interests of the patient.
3203. A petition may be filed by any of the following:
(a) The patient.
(b) The patient's spouse.
(c) A relative or friend of the patient, or other interested person, including the patient's agent under a power of attorney for health care.
(d) The patient's physician.
(e) A person acting on behalf of the health care institution in which the patient is located if the patient is in a health care institution.
(f) The public guardian or other county officer designated by the board of supervisors of the county in which the patient is located or resides or is temporarily living.
3204. The petition shall state, or set forth by a medical declaration attached to the petition, all of the following known to the petitioner at the time the petition is filed:
(a) The condition of the patient's health that requires treatment.
(b) The recommended health care that is considered to be medically appropriate.
(c) The threat to the patient's condition if authorization for the recommended health care is delayed or denied by the court.
(d) The predictable or probable outcome of the recommended health care.
(e) The medically available alternatives, if any, to the recommended health care.
(f) The efforts made to obtain consent from the patient.
(g) If the petition is filed by a person on behalf of a health care institution, the name of the person to be designated to give consent to the recommended health care on behalf of the patient.
(h) The deficit or deficits in the patient's mental functions listed in subdivision (a) of Section 811 that are impaired, and an identification of a link between the deficit or deficits and the patient's inability to respond knowingly and intelligently to queries about the recommended health care or inability to participate in a decision about the recommended health care by means of a rational thought process.
(i) The names and addresses, so far as they are known to the petitioner, of the persons specified in subdivision (b) of Section 1821.
3205. Upon the filing of the petition, the court shall determine the name of the attorney the patient has retained to represent the patient in the proceeding under this part or the name of the attorney the patient plans to retain for that purpose. If the patient has not retained an attorney and does not plan to retain one, the court shall appoint the public defender or private counsel under Section 1471 to consult with and represent the patient at the hearing on the petition and, if such appointment is made, Section 1472 applies.
3206. (a) Not less than 15 days before the hearing, notice of the time and place of the hearing and a copy of the petition shall be personally served on the patient, the patient's attorney, and the agent under the patient's power of attorney for health care, if any.
(b) Not less than 15 days before the hearing, notice of the time and place of the hearing and a copy of the petition shall be mailed to the following persons:
(1) The patient's spouse, if any, at the address stated in the petition.
(2) The patient's relatives named in the petition at their addresses stated in the petition.
(c) For good cause, the court may shorten or waive notice of the hearing as provided by this section. In determining the period of notice to be required, the court shall take into account both of the following:
(1) The existing medical facts and circumstances set forth in the petition or in a medical declaration attached to the petition or in a medical declaration presented to the court.
(2) The desirability, where the condition of the patient permits, of giving adequate notice to all interested persons.
3207. Notwithstanding Section 3206, the matter presented by the petition may be submitted for the determination of the court upon proper and sufficient medical declarations if the attorney for the petitioner and the attorney for the patient so stipulate and further stipulate that there remains no issue of fact to be determined.
3208. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the court may make an order authorizing the recommended health care for the patient and designating a person to give consent to the recommended health care on behalf of the patient if the court determines from the evidence all of the following:
(1) The existing or continuing condition of the patient's health requires the recommended health care.
(2) If untreated, there is a probability that the condition will become life-endangering or result in a serious threat to the physical or mental health of the patient.
(3) The patient is unable to consent to the recommended health care.
(b) In determining whether the patient's mental functioning is so severely impaired that the patient lacks the capacity to make any health care decision, the court may take into consideration the frequency, severity, and duration of periods of impairment.
(c) The court may make an order authorizing withholding or withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care and designating a person to give or withhold consent to the recommended health care on behalf of the patient if the court determines from the evidence all of the following:
(1) The recommended health care is in accordance with the patient' s best interest, taking into consideration the patient's personal values to the extent known to the petitioner.
(2) The patient is unable to consent to the recommended health care.
3208.5. In a proceeding under this part:
(a) Where the patient has the capacity to consent to the recommended health care, the court shall so find in its order.
(b) Where the court has determined that the patient has the capacity to consent to the recommended health care, the court shall, if requested, determine whether the patient has accepted or refused the recommended health care, and whether the patient's consent to the recommended health care is an informed consent.
(c) Where the court finds that the patient has the capacity to consent to the recommended health care, but that the patient refuses consent, the court shall not make an order authorizing the recommended health care or designating a person to give consent to the recommended health care. If an order has been made authorizing the recommended health care and designating a person to give consent to the recommended health care, the order shall be revoked if the court determines that the patient has recovered the capacity to consent to the recommended health care. Until revoked or modified, the order is effective authorization for the recommended health care.
3209. The court in which the petition is filed has continuing jurisdiction to revoke or modify an order made under this part upon a petition filed, noticed, and heard in the same manner as an original petition filed under this part.
3210. (a) This part is supplemental and alternative to other procedures or methods for obtaining consent to health care or making health care decisions, and is permissive and cumulative for the relief to which it applies.
(b) Nothing in this part limits the providing of health care in an emergency case in which the health care is required because (1) the health care is required for the alleviation of severe pain or (2) the patient has a medical condition that, if not immediately diagnosed and treated, will lead to serious disability or death.
(c) Nothing in this part supersedes the right that any person may have under existing law to make health care decisions on behalf of a patient, or affects the decisionmaking process of a health care institution.
3211. (a) No person may be placed in a mental health treatment facility under the provisions of this part.
(b) No experimental drug as defined in Section 111515 of the Health and Safety Code may be prescribed for or administered to any person under this part.
(c) No convulsive treatment as defined in Section 5325 of the Welfare and Institutions Code may be performed on any person under this part.
(d) No person may be sterilized under this part.
(e) The provisions of this part are subject to a valid advance health care directive under the Health Care Decisions Law, Division 4.7 (commencing with Section 4600).
3212. Nothing in this part shall be construed to supersede or impair the right of any individual to choose treatment by spiritual means in lieu of medical treatment, nor shall any individual choosing treatment by spiritual means, in accordance with the tenets and practices of that individual's established religious tradition, be required to submit to medical testing of any kind pursuant to a determination of capacity.
For which I salute you, but one thing I've learned reading FreeRepublic the past two weeks is don't bother trying to argue from a position of morality with people who are only interested in monetary issues.
Perhaps true! But if I don't prick their conscience, who will? I have found some are also pro-abortion, and euthanasia is more of a "I want to be in control of my body and my life" issue, i.e. I have a living will and it is none of your business.
How many people do you think knew about this before Terri's case? I'm guessing most people still don't.
I'm not begrudging you your effort. It's commendable. I'm only reflecting on the truth that, as a pro-lifer, and one who believes the courts are dangerously out of control, when it came down the crunch, I found more allies among the likes of Jesse Jackson, Alan Derschowitz, and Ralph Nader than I did among some of my FR "brethren."
LOL! As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows.
Very few. I think most still think it is just a matter of bad law in Florida. I do have to give California's top court credit for stopping a similar case here a few years back, but we need to raise public awareness and change the law.
All states do except for Illinois.
I can understand not keeping people alive with machines such as heart and lung and dialisis machines, when there is no hope for treatment or recovery. Keeping them artificially alive serves little purpose if they are not contributing to the society or the family life, and a moral case can be made that is is wrong to prolong suffering by artificial means just to preserve an artificial life that has no hope of survival without artificial means.
But that is a far cry from simply removing a feeding tube, when all other bodily functions work without mechanical means. In Terri's case, I believe it was a horribly misguided and immoral decision. If a person can swallow food and water, or even if they need the tube for convenience sake (i.e. because nobody has the time or inclination to help them bring food and water to their mouth) it is, in my judgement, immoral to deny them food and water.
What happened to Terri - the demand that no food or water be fed to her by the mouth - amounts to murder in my opinion. This was a horribly wrong decision and I am wholly dismayed at the judicial system for not recognizing the immorality - and indeed the illegality - of their decision to deprive her of food and water by mouth.
That Michael Shiavo claims that Terri once said in passing "I would not want to live like that" - not even describing what "that" she was talking about (i.e. a heart & lung machine, or a feeding tube?) is considered clear and convincing evidence of a desire to die if stricken with her specific condition was an atrocious and frightful decision.
A feeding tube amounts to very little in raw costs and any claim of the financial burden of a feeding tube really only reveals the absurd and out of proportion health care costs. It is the system we have that demands a "professional level of care" instead of sending her home with her family to care for and provide the feeding tube is the problem. We have artificially increased the costs of caring for her and those like her by demanding that she be placed in a high-cost environment, when a low cost environmnet coupled with a few hours of training (i.e. how to clean the feeding insert and how to change the feeding bag) would suffice to extend her life for years to come. We have abdicated our familial and social responsibilities to the government, and then cry when the government refuses to take on that burden in the manner we expect. To a degree, only a small degree, what has happened here is the fault of Americans at large. Not only regarding health care - we have abdicated our social, welfare, security and educational responsibilities to government as well, and we are getting our just desserts for so doing.
Theresa Marie Schindler, Martyr for the Gospel of Life, pray for us.
I think we are generally of a like mind on this issue. I believe these euthanasia laws regarding the removal of nutrition and hydration are clearly immoral, regardless of the desires of the person, written or otherwise.
I did. Years and years ago.
This decision also paves the way for infanticide, since infants can't feed themselves.
What the hell is 'artificial nutrition'???
Is it nutrasweet? Is it a plastic bag? Is it wallpaper paste?
WHAT THE HELL IS ARTIFICIAL NUTRITION??
I'm off Burger King to get my artificial nutrition.
Do you know of any suggested language for changing the laws or groups that are already working to change them?
Thank for your help.
I wish I could recall what his reply to me was but it was not hopeful.
I did call some senators here and they said it was pretty much hopeless. Maybe in your state it would have a chance.
Scary stuff, we are there all ready.
Ping
Thank you. I think it's a new day now. I think a lot of people are horrified by the thought that someday they could be the one lying there starving and dehydrating to death and at the total mercy (or lack thereof) of one guardian who may have conflicts of interest.
It would be nice if California could lead the way on this.
For consideration for your ping lists.
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