Humboldt County Adult Protective Services v. Superior Court of Humboldt County

I. INTRODUCTION

The Health Care Decisions Law (Prob. Code, § 4600 et seq.) recognizes and protects the “fundamental right” of adults to control decisions concerning their own health care, “including the decision to have life-sustaining treatment withheld or withdrawn.” (§ 4650, subd. (a).) Humboldt County Adult Protective Services (Humboldt) filed a petition under this law, ex parte and without notice, to effectively revoke Dick Magney’s written advance care directive (the validity of which has never been questioned) by removing his wife as his designated agent for health care decisions and to compel medical treatment. Humboldt took this action two weeks after Mr. Magney was hospitalized and while he was receiving palliative care, the course recommended by his treating physician (as well as by his prior treating physician and consulting cardiologist) and desired by both Mr. Magney and his wife.

Humboldt succeeded in procuring a temporary treatment order. It did so not only on the basis of an appallingly inadequate evidentiary showing, but also by misleading the trial court both as to pertinent provisions of the Health Care Decisions Law and as to Mr. Magney’s medical…