§ 2994-e. Decisions about life-sustaining treatment for minor patients. 1. Authority of parent or guardian. The parent or guardian of a minor patient shall have the authority to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment, including decisions to withhold or withdraw such treatment, subject to the provisions of this section and subdivision five of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this article. 2. Decision-making standards and procedures for minor patient. (a) The parent or guardian of a minor patient shall make decisions in accordance with the minor's best interests, consistent with the standards set forth in subdivision four of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this article, taking into account the minor's wishes as appropriate under the circumstances.(b) An attending practitioner, in consultation with a minor's parent or guardian, shall determine whether a minor patient has decision-making capacity for a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. If the minor has such capacity, a parent's or guardian's decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for the minor may not be implemented without the minor's consent.
(c) Where a parent or guardian of a minor patient has made a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment and an attending practitioner has reason to believe that the minor patient has a parent or guardian who has not been informed of the decision, including a non-custodial parent or guardian, an attending practitioner or someone acting on his or her behalf, shall make reasonable efforts to determine if the uninformed parent or guardian has maintained substantial and continuous contact with the minor and, if so, shall make diligent efforts to notify that parent or guardian prior to implementing the decision. 3. Decision-making standards and procedures for emancipated minor patient. (a) If an attending practitioner determines that a patient is an emancipated minor patient with decision-making capacity, the patient shall have the authority to decide about life-sustaining treatment. Such authority shall include a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment if an attending practitioner and the ethics review committee determine that the decision accords with the standards for surrogate decisions for adults, and the ethics review committee approves the decision.
(b) If the hospital can with reasonable efforts ascertain the identity of the parents or guardian of an emancipated minor patient, the hospital shall notify such persons prior to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment pursuant to this subdivision.
