Bill > H1591

This bill amends Chapter 201D of Massachusetts General Laws to establish a protocol for designating a healthcare proxy when a patient's originally appointed healthcare agent is unavailable. Specifically, the bill allows an attending physician to designate another willing physician as a proxy decision-maker under strict conditions: the physician must have made reasonable efforts to contact the patient's original proxy, obtained an independent determination of the patient's lack of decisional capacity (either from another physician, an advanced practice nurse who has collaborated with a physician, or a court), consulted with and received consensus from the medical facility's medical ethics committee, and documented the new proxy's identity in the patient's medical record. The bill explicitly emphasizes that this provision does not authorize physician-assisted suicide, thereby maintaining existing legal protections against such practices. The purpose appears to be ensuring continuity of medical decision-making for patients who are unable to make their own healthcare choices and whose originally designated healthcare proxy cannot serve.

Justice

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H1591