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Abstract: 

The Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA), which took effect in 1991, is a federal law intended to encourage a broader public awareness of the need for advance directives for healthcare. It requires all health- and long-term care facilities receiving federal Medicare or Medicaid funds to provide to patients and residents, at the time of their admission to the facility, education about their right to make healthcare decisions using advance directives. It also mandates such facilities to keep a record of the location of a patient’s healthcare directive in the chart, and to honor a patient’s wishes concerning end-of-life medical care and the withdrawal of life-sustaining measures or transfer the patient to a facility that will do so. The statute does not require covered facilities to make advance direct forms available to patients, nor does it authorize physician assisted suicide. This article incorporates tables: “State Statutes Pertaining to Living Wills” and “State Statutes Relating to Healthcare Powers of Attorney”.

Keywords: “Right” to Die

Affiliations:  .