Natural Death Act

The Natural Death Act governs advance health care planning and end-of-life medical decision-making, allowing a competent adult to execute a living will, health care proxy, or combined advance directive stating which treatments they want withheld or provided if they can no longer decide for themselves. It sets out how such directives are executed, filed, and revoked, recognizes directives validly made in other states, authorizes do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders and orders for pediatric palliative and end-of-life care, and establishes a hierarchy of surrogates who may decide for a patient with no directive in place. The act also shields physicians, facilities, and proxies who follow a directive in good faith from civil, criminal, and professional liability, addresses providers who decline to comply, bars insurers from treating the withholding of treatment as suicide or conditioning coverage on execution of a directive, and states that it does not authorize mercy killing.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.