Chapter 5 - Immunities and Liabilities

California Probate Code — §§ 4740-4743

Sections (4)

Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 658, Sec. 39. Effective January 1, 2000. Operative July 1, 2000, by Sec. 43 of Ch. 658.

A health care provider or health care institution acting in good faith and in accordance with generally accepted health care standards applicable to the health care provider or institution is not subject to civil or criminal liability or to discipline for unprofessional conduct for any actions in compliance with this division, including, but not limited to, any of the following conduct:

(a)Complying with a health care decision of a person that the health care provider or health care institution believes in good faith has the authority to make a health care decision for a patient, including a decision to withhold or withdraw health care.

(b)Declining to comply with a health care decision of a person based on a belief that the person then lacked authority.

(c)Complying with an advance health care directive and assuming that the directive was valid when made and has not been revoked or terminated.

(d)Declining to comply with an individual health care instruction or health care decision, in accordance with Sections 4734 to 4736, inclusive.

§ 4741

Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 658, Sec. 39. Effective January 1, 2000. Operative July 1, 2000, by Sec. 43 of Ch. 658.

A person acting as agent or surrogate under this part is not subject to civil or criminal liability or to discipline for unprofessional conduct for health care decisions made in good faith.

§ 4742

Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 658, Sec. 39. Effective January 1, 2000. Operative July 1, 2000, by Sec. 43 of Ch. 658.

(a)A health care provider or health care institution that intentionally violates this part is subject to liability to the aggrieved individual for damages of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) or actual damages resulting from the violation, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees.

(b)A person who intentionally falsifies, forges, conceals, defaces, or obliterates an individual’s advance health care directive or a revocation of an advance health care directive without the individual’s consent, or who coerces or fraudulently induces an individual to give, revoke, or not to give an advance health care directive, is subject to liability to that individual for damages of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or actual damages resulting from the action, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees.

(c)The damages provided in this section are cumulative and not exclusive of any other remedies provided by law.

§ 4743

Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 658, Sec. 39. Effective January 1, 2000. Operative July 1, 2000, by Sec. 43 of Ch. 658.

Any person who alters or forges a written advance health care directive of another, or willfully conceals or withholds personal knowledge of a revocation of an advance directive, with the intent to cause a withholding or withdrawal of health care necessary to keep the patient alive contrary to the desires of the patient, and thereby directly causes health care necessary to keep the patient alive to be withheld or withdrawn and the death of the patient thereby to be hastened, is subject to prosecution for unlawful homicide as provided in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 187) of Title 8 of Part 1 of the Penal Code.