 |
| photo credit: J. Stephen Conn / Flickr |
On April 21, SB 109, which would amend the Health Care Surrogate Act to no longer require a witness to sign the Practitioner Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form, passed the Senate. It was assigned to the House Health Care Licenses Committee on April 28, and it will have its first hearing at 9:00 am on May 5.
The POLST form is used when a patient is deciding what kinds of treatments they would approve of if they are unable to make decisions. SB 109 would also allow a national POLST form to be used instead of the Illinois POLST form. That form similarly does not require a signature from a witness.
Proponents of this legislation argue that because some patients don't have anyone to be a witness for them, the current law should be amended. This reasoning is faulty because the majority of patients do have others available to be witnesses for them. Furthermore, the current requirement does not require that the signing witness be close to the patient. The witness can be anyone.
Witness signatures on POLST forms provide valuable protection that should not be taken away.
Click here to file a witness slip opposing SB 109.
