Greenleaf Measures Pass Senate 

HARRISBURG—A bill sponsored by Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf to provide for health care powers of attorney passed the Senate, along with an unrelated Greenleaf measure on a name change for district justices and a commemorative resolution on the state organ donor law.

The purpose of Senate Bill 492, which is based on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Decedents' Estates Law, is to provide a statutory means for competent adults to control their health care treatment either directly, through instructions written in advance, or indirectly, through a health care agent.

The legislation would permit a person to use a health care power of attorney to name a health care agent to make all health care decisions, including those involving life-sustaining treatment.  Additionally, the bill sets forth procedures for the treatment of pregnant women who are unconscious and in a terminal condition.  It permits a living will and a health care power of attorney to be combined into a single health care document and establishes procedures and conditions of living wills and health care powers of attorney and their revocation.

Senate Bill 904 would amend the Judicial Code to change the designation of district justice to magisterial district judge to reflect the fact that district justices serve as judges in magisterial districts.  The name change was recommended by the State Supreme Court and by the Special Court Judges Association of Pennsylvania.

Like the other two measures, Greenleaf's senate resolution to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the state organ donor law passed unanimously.  The statute, Act 102 of 1994, was signed into law on December 1, 1994, by the late Gov. Robert P. Casey, who was the recipient of a donated heart and liver in 1993.  Greenleaf recently participated in an organ donor awareness event with Casey's son, Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr. and other state officials in the capitol.  The 1994 law, which became the model for other state organ donor laws, sets forth procedures that encourage donation of tissue and organs.  The act also incorporated donor cards into the Pennsylvania driver's license.  Passage of the law is credited with a 70 percent increase in organ and tissue donations in the commonwealth.