Ensure Compassionate
End-of-Life Care
The American Cancer Society strongly supports the "Family Health Care Decisions Act" to ensure that patients who do not have a Health Care Proxy will have critical cancer treatment decisions made in their best interest by those closest to them when and if they lose capacity. Granting decision-making rights to a designated family member or close friend provides the best assurance that the wishes and needs or a cancer patient will be followed.
Get Involved
Contact Governor Paterson, Senate President Smith and Assembly Speaker Silver and tell them you support the "Family Health Care Decisions Act."
The Latest Update
Bills (A7729 Gottfried and S3164 Duane) have been approved by strong bi-partisan majorities of the Health committees in both houses, and await final action
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
S3164 (Duane) A7729 (Gottfried)
The American Cancer Society strongly supports the Family Health Care Decisions Act (S3164/A7729) to assure that patients who have not already selected a Health Care Proxy will be able to have critical cancer treatment made in their best interests by those closest to them when and if they lose capacity.
Improving the quality of life for those who are diagnosed with cancer is a major priority of the American Cancer Society. This means helping patients find high quality, effective treatment, helping patients adjust to treatment, and helping patients and their families live with the challenges that all survivors face.
The American Cancer Society’s experience indicates that informed decision-making is often difficult and always important to survivors and their families. Patients and their families need good information to make critical decisions, and the opportunity to make difficult decisions about treatment together. Survivors and their families seek to make these decisions together, in the context of their existing family relationships.
Cancer care at the end of life can be very complicated. Often, advanced cancer treatment - including chemotherapy, radiation, and medications for symptom relief - make treatment decisions complex. These situations call for careful and compassionate consideration about the treatment for cancer patients who may be facing death.
Many cancer patients do not have signed healthcare proxies. The reasons are varied, but patient navigation specialists at the American Cancer Society agree that cancer patients at the end of life often feel like there is “still a chance” of beating the disease, and may put off plans for their terminal care. Others may not understand that in New York, their families cannot easily direct those decisions in the absence of a proxy. Granting decision-making rights to a designated family member or close friend provides the best assurance that the wishes and needs of a cancer patient will be followed.
Although in many instances cancer care can be managed like a chronic disease, some cancers are so aggressive and fast moving that patients can become unable to exercise their full decision making capacity in a matter of days. Equally likely is cancer striking someone who is already incapacitated with a preexisting illness. In these cases, patients may not have had the opportunity to consider treatment options, and the authority to decide the best course of treatment ought to include those closest to the patient.
Another important area of concern is pain management. Minimizing pain is a priority in the cancer community because more than two-thirds of cancer patients experience uncontrolled pain at some point during treatment. About 40% of patients with advanced disease do not get adequate pain relief despite the availability of medications and treatments that have the potential to alleviate almost all cancer pain. Having the assurance of a close relative or family friend to make healthcare decisions that fulfill the wishes of a terminal cancer patient eases the suffering of many facing the end of life.
Most states automatically grant these healthcare decision-making rights to family members or others close to the patient. In New York, that right does not exist. For New Yorkers who are incompetent to make their own healthcare decisions, family members are limited in their ability to direct health care decisions for patients. They are currently required to present clear and convincing evidence of a patient's wishes before life sustaining treatment can be removed regardless of how warranted removal is, given that patient's medical condition. New York is only one of two states with this antiquated process.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization estimates that only 20% of Americans have some type of advance directives. A recent study by the Sarah Lawrence College Health Advocacy Program may shed some light on why this is so. Over 70 percent of the 210 elderly people interviewed on their understanding of health care proxies believed that their loved ones could make medical decisions on their behalf should they be unable to decide for themselves. Subsequently, when given a written explanation the law in New York State, more than half still believed their family member could make those decisions, despite reading a document that states otherwise. Only one quarter of respondents indicated a clear understanding that a signed healthcare proxy is required. These findings underscore the fact that despite years of education and intervention to improve the public’s understanding of health care proxies in New York, many simply persons do not comprehend the need for this document.
If all New Yorkers had a signed healthcare proxy, this legislation would not be necessary. But the stark reality is that most have not designated a healthcare proxy. This legislation would help diminish suffering for many who are dying from cancer, as well as many other families facing a sudden illness or terminal disease in a loved one. Many patients, families and their advocates have been anxiously awaiting the passage of this pending legislation over the past several years, during which it has received tremendous support. Each day that passes without it, many New York patients, as well as their families and caregivers, are forced to endure unnecessary pain and suffering.
The American Cancer Society strongly supports the Family Health Care Decisions Act and urges its prompt approval by the Legislature and the Governor.
Important Documents and Links:
Read the "Family Health Care Decision Act" here>>>
Get a PDF of our memo in support of the "Family Health Care Decisions Act" here>>>
|
|
