2013 New Hampshire Revised StatutesTitle X - PUBLIC HEALTHChapter 137-J - WRITTEN DIRECTIVES FOR MEDICAL DECISION MAKING FOR ADULTS WITHOUT CAPACITY TO MAKE HEALTH CARE DECISIONSSection 137-J:10 - Withholding or Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment.

Universal Citation: NH Rev Stat § 137-J:10 (2013)

    137-J:10 Withholding or Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment. – 
    I. In the event a health care decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, including medically administered nutrition and hydration, is to be made by an agent, and the principal has not executed the "living will'' of the advance directive, the following additional conditions shall apply: 
       (a) The principal's attending physician or APRN shall certify in writing that the principal lacks the capacity to make health care decisions. 
       (b) Two physicians or a physician and an APRN shall certify in writing that the principal is near death or is permanently unconscious. 
       (c) Notwithstanding the capacity of an agent to act, the agent shall make a good faith effort to explore all avenues reasonably available to discern the desires of the principal including, but not limited to, the principal's advance directive, the principal's written or spoken expressions of wishes, and the principal's known religious or moral beliefs. 
    II. Notwithstanding paragraph I, medically administered nutrition and hydration and life-sustaining treatment shall not be withdrawn or withheld under an advance directive unless: 
       (a) There is a clear expression of such intent in the directive; 
       (b) The principal objects pursuant to RSA 137-J:5, IV; or 
       (c) Such treatment would have the unintended consequence of hastening death or causing irreparable harm as certified by an attending physician and a physician knowledgeable about the patient's condition. 
    III. The withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall at no time be construed as a suicide or murder for any legal purpose. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to constitute, condone, authorize, or approve suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or euthanasia, or permit any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end one's own life or to end the life of another other than either to permit the natural process of dying of a patient near death or the removal of life-sustaining treatment from a patient in a permanently unconscious condition as provided in this chapter. The withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, however, shall not relieve any individual of responsibility for any criminal acts that may have caused the principal's condition. 
    IV. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve: 
       (a) The consent to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant principal, unless, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, as certified on the principal's medical record by the attending physician or APRN and an obstetrician who has examined the principal, such treatment or procedures will not maintain the principal in such a way as to permit the continuing development and live birth of the fetus or will be physically harmful to the principal or prolong severe pain which cannot be alleviated by medication. 
       (b) The withholding or withdrawing of medically administered nutrition and hydration or life-sustaining treatment from a mentally incompetent or developmentally disabled person, unless such person has a validly executed advance directive or such action is authorized by an existing guardianship or other court order, or, in the absence of such directive, authorization, or order, such action is taken in accordance with the standard protocol of a health care facility licensed under RSA 151 as applicable to its general patient population. 
    V. Nothing in this chapter shall impair or supersede any other legal right or responsibility which any person may have to effect life-sustaining treatment in any lawful manner; provided, that this paragraph shall not be construed to authorize any violation of RSA 137-J:7, II or III. 
    VI. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to revoke or adversely affect the privileges or immunities of health care providers or residential care providers and others to provide treatment to persons in need thereof in an emergency, as provided for under New Hampshire law. 
    VII. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to create a presumption that in the absence of an advance directive, a person wants life-sustaining treatment to be either taken or withdrawn. This chapter shall also not be construed to supplant any existing rights and responsibilities under the law of this state governing the conduct of physicians or APRNs in consultation with patients or their families or legal guardians in the absence of an advance directive.

Source. 2006, 302:2, eff. Jan. 1, 2007. 2009, 54:4, eff. July 21, 2009. 2012, 251:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2013.

Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program Integrity: An OIG Portfolio

Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program Integrity: An OIG Portfolio 

Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program Integrity
What OIG Found Hospice care can provide great comfort to beneficiaries, families, and caregivers at the end of a beneficiary’s life. Use of hospice care has grown steadily over the past decade, with Medicare paying $16.7 billion for this care in 2016. 
However, OIG has identified vulnerabilities in the program. OIG found that hospices do not always provide needed services to beneficiaries and sometimes provide poor quality care. In some cases, hospices were not able to manage effectively symptoms or medications, leaving beneficiaries in unnecessary pain for many days. 

Doctors Make Mistakes. A New Documentary Explores What Happens When They Do—and How to Fix It

People accept it as fact: that to err is human. Every misstep is an opportunity to learn and improve.

But when the mistakes are made by doctors, lives can be compromised, or even lost. Among malpractice claims, about 30% are due to diagnostic errors,according to a report by Coverys, a malpractice services provider. In the U.S. in 2017, surgeons either operated on the wrong patient, the wrong site or performed the wrong procedure 95 times, according to the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies many healthcare systems in the country.

The Truth Shall Set You Free: FDA Reveals Secret Human Experimentation at Northwestern University

URGENT CALL TO ACTION:

1. The purpose of this report is to make public the willful negligence actions of Dr. McCarthy of Northwestern University who implanted heart valves that did not have FDA approval, and did so, without receiving consent from his patients in a clinical trial which was published without the University Human Subject protections approval.
2. A recent FDA freedom of information act validates the facts outlined above, which was not available until December 18, 2018. The evidence was provided to Northwestern University with no response from the VP for research.

Whoa: Israeli scientists say they’ve found a ‘complete cure for cancer,’ expect it ready in a year

The Israeli company in question is called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd., and it’s led by an Israeli scientist named Dan Aridor. Not only does Aridor say his treatment will cure all cancer, he says it will be quick, inexpensive and with little to nothing in the way of side-effects.

Sound too good to be true? Of course it does, but so do most things we thought were unimaginable until they were right in front of us.

WHY I AM OPPOSED TO ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA Thirteen diverse perspectives

WHY I AM OPPOSED TO ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA

Thirteen diverse perspectives

Articulate and persuasive arguments against legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia have been expressed by a broad range of individuals and organisations from diverse perspectives, professional backgrounds, political views and life experiences.

From these thirteen diverse perspectives there emerges a common view that legalising assisted suicide or euthanasia can never be done safely.

Doctors 'pull the plug on the WRONG patient

'I killed somebody that I didn't even know': Doctors 'pull the plug on the WRONG patient after seeking permission from the sister of a DIFFERENT man who had the same name and age'

A New York City hospital is being sued for switching off the life support of the wrong patient, after they misidentified him and asked permission from the sister of a man with the same name.   

Freddy Clarence Williams, 40, died on July 29 at St. Barnabas Hospital in Brooklyn after Shirell Williams gave doctors permission to withdraw his life support because he was brain dead.