Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The HSE provides guidance on advance care planning including Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) orders, to ensure these are made consistently, transparently and in line with best practice. The HSE National Consent Policy 2019 – Part 4 Do Not Attempt Resuscitation provides a decision-making framework that facilitates the advance discussion of personal preferences, while further guidance on DNAR decision-making was developed during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which is applicable across all care settings where services are provided for and on behalf of the HSE.

Decisions relating to DNAR orders are part of the larger area of healthcare decisions that need to be made at the end-of-life. Best practice states that such decisions should be discussed as part of the advance care planning process. One method of achieving that goal is through an advance healthcare directive (AHDs). An AHD is a statement made by a person with capacity setting out his or her will and preferences regarding treatment decisions that may arise in the future when he or she no longer has capacity. Part 8 of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 provides a legislative framework for AHDs, and allows for directive-makers to make legally binding decisions on matters including the refusal of life sustaining treatment. It is the responsibility the Department of Health to implement Part 8 of the 2015 Act, and it is planned that this will be done as part of the overall commencement of the Act, through the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022, which recently passed Report Stage in the Dáil.