November 19, 2015

NRLC Hails Bill Providing Equal Treatment for Pro-Life Advance Directives

The National Right to Life Committee applauded the introduction today, in both the Senate and House, of the “Medicare Choices Empowerment and Protection Act.”

The companion bills would give Medicare beneficiaries and others online access to model advance directives that choose life-saving treatment, food and fluids equally with those that reject them. The bills would require they be told, “You should not feel pressured to violate your own values and preferences, and you are entitled to implement them without discrimination based on age or degree of disability.”

The bills would help offset widespread efforts to “nudge” patients to agree to forego life-saving treatment documented in National Right to Life’s March 2015 report “The Bias Against Life-Preserving Treatment in Advance Care Planning.”

Click here for the original article from National Right to Life.