Bill > SB228

This bill prohibits the use of "excited delirium" as a medical diagnosis or cause of death in Hawaii, effectively banning medical professionals, government entities, and law enforcement officers from using the term in official documents or communications. The bill defines excited delirium as a description of a person's agitated, aggressive, or paranoid state that is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and lacks sufficient scientific evidence. Specifically, medical examiners, coroners, and healthcare providers are prohibited from listing excited delirium on death certificates, and must instead describe specific contributing causes of death. Law enforcement officers are barred from using the term in incident reports, though they may describe an individual's specific conduct and demeanor. Additionally, the bill establishes a new rule of evidence that prevents the admission of excited delirium as a diagnosis in civil actions, with parties only allowed to describe factual circumstances without using the specific term. The bill's provisions are intended to prevent the use of a potentially problematic and scientifically unsupported medical term that could be used to mask underlying causes of death or behavioral issues, with an unusually distant effective date of July 1, 3000.

Health and Social Services, Justice

https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=228&year=2026