HB480 - Health care; life-sustaining treatment for minors, exceptions.

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Simon's Law; health care; life-sustaining treatment for minors; exceptions. Requires a physician to obtain the written permission from at least one parent or legal guardian of a minor, defined in the bill as an unemancipated individual who is younger than 18 years of age and not under juvenile court supervision or on active duty with the Armed Forces of the United States, before instituting a Do Not Resuscitate order or similar physician's order. The bill creates an exception for when a physician is unable to contact a parent or legal guardian of such minor within 72 hours of the initial contact attempt. The bill also prevents a physician from interfering with such parent's or legal guardian's efforts to obtain other medical opinions, hindering or delaying the necessary measures to facilitate a transfer of such minor to another medical facility, or refusing to continue providing life-sustaining treatment to such minor when such a transfer is imminent. Under the bill, such parent or legal guardian maintains all rights to determine whether life-sustaining treatment and cardiopulmonary resuscitation are used on such minor unless a court of law or equity determines that there is destruction of the circulatory system, respiratory system, and the entire brain. A parent or legal guardian may also request disclosure of the physician's policies involving cardiopulmonary resuscitation and life-sustaining treatment.