This presentation (part of a panel) at the October 2020 American Society for Bioethics & Humanities annual conference summarizes developments on Medical Futility, Brain Death, Advance Directives, and Conscience-Based Objection

1. Legal Update 2020
Top 10 Bioethics
Legal Developments
Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C
ASBH 2020 (October 15, 2020)

2. updates

3. Medical Futility
Brain Death
Advance Directives
CBO

4. Medical
Futility

5. Trend limiting
clinician authority

8. (1999)

9. 1. Clinicians may withdraw
LST without consent
2. For any reason
3. If hospital committee
agrees

10. 2 new cases

15. Did not use TADA
No review committee
No 10-day transfer

18. Tinslee Lewis

19. “treatment keeping her
alive causes her pain …
simply cruel … serves no
medical purpose”

20. Plan to withdraw
over mom’s
objections

21. October
2019

24. unconstitutional

26. Procedural
due process

29. narrowing
clinician
authority

30. Simon’s
Laws

32. Inform parents of plan to
write DNR order
or
Prohibit write DNR order
over parental objection

35. June 2020

36. "A court … shall not have
the authority to require …
withdrawal of life-sustaining
procedures from a minor …
over … objection … parent."

37. Charlie Gard

38. Alfie Evans

39. in Iowa

40. One last
example legal
limits on futility

44. Extremely premature
infants
Infants born with
disabilities

45. Directs DHHS to enforce
EMTALA
Disability laws

46. Baby K
still good law

47. Brain
Death

48. 48

49. All 56 US
jurisdictions

50. individual … dead ... either
(1) irreversible cessation of
circulatory and respiratory
functions, or
(2) irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain

54. No change
in the law

55. questions

56. Do clinicians need
consent to do
brain death tests?

57. What are “accepted
medical standards”
for determining BD?

58. What duties when
religious objections?

59. Do prevailing
guidelines measure
what UDDA requires

61. Add ULC

63. Step 1
Study
committee

64. July 2021

65. Step 2
Drafting
committee

66. July 2022

67. Step 3
State
legislatures

68. That’s issue 2
brain death

69. Advance
directives

82. • VA flex

87. Persist
Good to add this here because gets some work don for QUT

89. Permit clinicians to
refuse what they
otherwise must do

93. What about
individual
physicians?

96. Barbara
Morris

97. Neil
Mahoney

102. “We don’t
care about
Colorado law”
paraphrased

103. First Amendment
Religious autonomy
Free exercise
Expressive association

105. First Amendment cannot
be used as a basis for an
exception to a general
law, no matter how great
the burden on religion

107. Nov. 4, 2020

108. Medical Futility
Brain Death
Advance Directives
CBO

109. 109
Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD
Director, Health Law Institute
Mitchell Hamline School of Law
875 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105
T 651-695-7661
C 310-270-3618
E Thaddeus.Pope@mitchellhamline.edu
W www.thaddeuspope.com
B medicalfutility.blogspot.com