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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 115-10
March 16, 2010

STATEMENT OF MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON THE SIGNING OF THE FAMILY HEALTH CARE DECISIONS ACT

"By signing the Family Health Care Decisions Act into law, Governor Paterson is allowing caregivers and families to carry out the wishes of those who lose the ability to make medical decisions without imposing tough legal and bureaucratic hurdles. Anyone who has helped care for a loved one in the last stages of life can appreciate what these improvements in the process can mean.

"The state law that the Family Health Care Decisions Act replaces required a very high standard for evidence for expressing a patient's wishes, and it did not allow family members to make health care treatment decisions for those who lack decision making capacity. The new law changes that, so that no patients are subjected to treatments contrary to their wishes. This compassionate law and the clear delineation of surrogate authority that it provides was supported by our Department for the Aging and was included in our Age Friendly NYC initiative, released last year. I want to thank the Governor and the Legislature for all of their work on this meaningful legislation."

 







MEDIA CONTACT:


Stu Loeser / Jason Post   (212) 788-2958




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