By Judie Brown
American Life League
There are a slew of states that have Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) programs available. We chose to focus on California’s program because of a critical e-mail alert we recently received from long-time pro-life activist Camille Giglio.
Giglio reports that California senator Lois Wolk (D-Napa) has a bill currently being considered in the state legislature. It is SB 1357, the POLST Registry Act. Giglio reports that this bill would make it mandatory that long-term care facilities and hospitals provide everyone seeking entrance to the facility a POLST form to sign along with instructions on completing the form. The bill also creates a statewide registry listing all POLST signers. The POLST form would be handed to all applicants by entities dealing with healthcare, including emergency medical teams (ambulances).
Please note that in California the EMTs are not required to provide immediate response for requests to resuscitate the patient if he has a signed POLST form!
Further, according to Giglio, “The back side of the POLST form, using small print, advises that physicians and other lower echelon healthcare providers are authorized to complete and sign a POLST form for the patient if that healthcare person deems it to be beneficial for that patient.”
That alone should kill the bill!
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