The House Public Health Committee has two bad bills on its agenda for Tuesday, March 23: H.B. 1685 and H.B. 1686.
These bad bills by Rep. Michelle Gray (R – Melbourne) and Sen. Breanne Davis (R – Russellville) amend the Arkansas Healthcare Decisions Act and the Arkansas Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment Act.
The Arkansas Healthcare Decisions Act and the Arkansas Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment Act govern how Arkansans and their family members make decisions about end-of-life care.
Under H.B. 1685 and H.B. 1686, patients and families might not work directly with physicians when making end-of-life decisions and choices about life-sustaining care.
That could undermine how we treat nursing home residents, the elderly, and the terminally ill.
Arkansas has excellent laws protecting people near the end of life. We don’t need to do anything that might weaken those good laws.
