Keep the Courts Out of Hospital Rooms

Advanced-care directives are instructions about end-of-life care made by an individual to determine the course of treatment in the event that he or she is near death and unconscious or mentally incapacitated, or in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for improvement. In an age when medical science can keep comatose people alive for years, such directives allow people to end life as closely as possible in accordance with their wishes.

Two bills sponsored by Republican Rep. Dan Itse of Fremont would make the use of advanced-care directives more difficult. In some situations, they could potentially countermand the wishes of a dying individual. They both deserve defeat.

The use of advanced-care directives has increased slowly and steadily over the two-plus decades they've been in use. Having a directive on file makes decision-making far easier for loved ones and medical providers. Everyone would be wise to fill one out, have it witnessed, copied and filed with important papers and medical providers. But the reality is, people procrastinate. House Bill 1216 would punish them for it by taking power away from their loved ones and needlessly giving it to the courts.

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Keep the Courts out of Hospital Rooms