Redrafting Ohio's Advance Directives Laws

Abstract

Although the basic structure of Ohio's Advance Directive Statutes is sound, many of the actual provisions contain excessive, burdensome, and often incomprehensible restrictions on patient-centered decisionmaking. This article presents redrafting suggestions from the Ohio Bioethics Task Force designed to clarify, simplify and focus Ohio law.

Keywords: Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, Advance Directive, Quinlan, Constitutional Rights, Uniform Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, Do Not Resuscitate Orders, Non-declarant, Permanent Unconscious State, Surrogate Decision Makers