NY A04774

Restores "medical futility" as a legal basis for issuing a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, allowing physicians to determine that resuscitation would be unsuccessful in restoring cardiac and respiratory function or that the patient would experience repeated arrests before death

Amends the Family Health Care Decisions Act to add medical futility as a third criterion under which a surrogate can consent to a DNR order, alongside existing standards for terminal illness and inhumane burden of treatment

Allows DNR orders to be entered without judicial approval for adult patients lacking decision-making capacity when two physicians independently concur that resuscitation would be medically futile

Extends the medical futility standard to intellectually disabled patients under the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act, bypassing the "extraordinary burden" requirement when resuscitation would be futile

Takes effect 90 days after becoming law, reinstating a standard that existed under New York's former DNR law (Article 29-B of the Public Health Law) before it was superseded by the 2010 Family Health Care Decisions Act