Report Title:
Manslaughter; Palliative Care
Description:
Precludes a charge of manslaughter against a medical caregiver whose patient dies while receiving palliative care.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
765 |
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TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to palliative care.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that medical caregivers for the terminally ill are inadequately protected from manslaughter charges when a patient under their care dies. Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to protect from a manslaughter charge those medical caregivers who, acting in their professional capacity, lose a patient receiving palliative care.
SECTION 2. Section 707-702, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§707-702 Manslaughter. (1) A person commits the offense of manslaughter if:
(a) The person recklessly causes the death of another person; or
(b) The person intentionally causes another person to commit suicide.
(2) In a prosecution for murder or attempted murder in the first and second degrees it is an affirmative defense, which reduces the offense to manslaughter or attempted manslaughter, that the defendant was, at the time the defendant caused the death of the other person, under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is a reasonable explanation. The reasonableness of the explanation shall be determined from the viewpoint of a reasonable person in the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.
(3) This section shall not apply to a medical caregiver with prescriptive authority or authority to administer medication who prescribes or administers medication for palliative care to a terminally ill patient with the consent of the terminally ill patient or the patient's agent.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3):
(a) "Agent" means a person appointed to represent the interests of the terminally ill patient by a medical power of attorney, power of attorney, health care proxy, or any other similar statutory or regular procedure used for designation of such person.
(b) "Medical caregiver" means a physician, registered nurse, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant licensed by this State.
(c) "Palliative care" means medical care and treatment provided by a licensed medical caregiver to a patient with an advanced chronic or terminal illness whose condition may not be responsive to curative treatment and who is, therefore, receiving treatment that relieves pain and suffering and supports the best possible quality of the patient's life.
(5) Subsection (3) shall not be interpreted to permit a medical caregiver to assist in the suicide of the patient.
[(3)] (6) Manslaughter is a
class A felony."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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