PEOPLE WHO are concerned about what might happen if they have a serious accident, have suffered a stroke and fear another one, or who have been diagnosed with an incapacitating illness, will be able to outline the care they wish to receive, or not receive, if the draft Bill proposed by the Law Reform Commission is enacted.
This would be contained in an Advance Care Directive which will be binding on medical professionals, subject to certain conditions, according to the LRC.
The draft Bill is appended to its report on Bioethics: Advance Care Directives, to be launched by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy this evening. This follows the publication of a consultation paper and a conference on the subject last October.
The proposed legislation is intended to give a legal framework to those who wish to plan their medical treatment, and to healthcare professionals who at present have to make decisions without such a legal framework.
It will allow people to leave instructions, either written or verbal, on treatment they wish to receive in the event of accident or incapacitating illness, and to nominate another person, a healthcare proxy, to carry out their wishes. It will also allow people to refuse life-saving treatment such as a blood transfusion for religious reasons.
Nothing in the proposed legislation would change the existing criminal law which outlaws euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Among the report’s 42 recommendations is the enactment of legislation to enable people to make their wishes known in as easy a way as possible, situated in the wider context of healthcare planning by an individual either in hospital or a hospice.
The recommendations include allowing for the appointment of a person with enduring powers of attorney, where a person is unable to make their own decisions, who would make decisions regarding life-saving treatment, organ donation and non-therapeutic sterilisation on behalf of that person.
The proposed legislation should allow a person to leave either written or verbal instructions that they do not wish to be resuscitated in the event of an accident or other medical trauma, it states.
Where the advance directive includes an instruction to refuse life-sustaining treatment, this would have to be in writing and witnessed, it states.
There should be a statutory code of practice for advance care directives, which would include detailed guidelines for healthcare professionals. A person would not be permitted to refuse basic care under an advance care directive. This would include warmth, shelter, oral nutrition, hydration and hygiene. Palliative care should also be regarded as basic care, according to the commission.
The report recommends that a healthcare professional would not have any legal liability where they follow an advance care directive that they believed to be valid.
The proposed legislation would not prohibit a professional body from investigating whether failure to carry out an advance care directive was in breach of standards.