ALBANY - Governor David Paterson signed the Family Health Care Decisions Act into law. The FHCDA allows family members to make health care decisions, including decisions about the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, on behalf of patients who lose their ability to make such decisions and have not prepared advance directives regarding their wishes.

"I could not be more pleased to sign this bill into law today as it will help ensure patients receive medical care more quickly and will help avoid unnecessary suffering," Paterson said. "After nearly two decades of negotiations, New Yorkers now have the right to make health care decisions on behalf of family members who cannot direct their own care."

The legislation establishes a protocol for health care practitioners to determine whether a patient in a general hospital or nursing home has decision-making capacity. When it is determined that a patient does not have decision-making capacity, the legislation requires the selection of a surrogate from a list of individuals ranked in order of priority, including family members, domestic partners and close friends. Various safeguards are required under the FHCDA to prevent inappropriate decisions, including procedures for a patient, family member or physician to assert objections to the selection of a particular person as a surrogate or to a decision made by a surrogate.