Suozzi and Murphy Introduce Commonsense, Bipartisan Bill to Ensure End-of-Life Wishes Are Respected

Washington, D.C.—Congressmen Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Greg Murphy (R-NC) introduced the bipartisan Legacy Act, a measure to ensure that every individual’s end-of-life wishes—including medical, personal, and religious directives—are respected. This legislation creates a standardized, centralized method to securely store and easily retrieve critical end-of-life and medical decision-making documents, simplifying healthcare planning and ensuring that personal and faith-based preferences are honored.

 

“Too often, families face confusion and emotional distress because essential healthcare directives or medical proxy forms cannot be easily located or verified. The Legacy Act would help patients, families, and healthcare providers make timely, informed decisions—honoring personal choice, preserving dignity, and reducing unnecessary conflict when it matters most,” said Congressman Tom Suozzi. “This is about clarity, compassion, and common sense in healthcare. Every person deserves the peace of mind that their voice will be heard, and their decisions respected.”

 

“End-of-life care and the death of a loved one is a very difficult time for families and all those involved,” said Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. “Improving the storage of and access to last-wish documents is essential to honoring those who cannot speak for themselves. I’m proud to lead this meaningful, bipartisan legislation to make commonsense reforms to ensure individuals can pass with dignity and their last wishes can be executed seamlessly.”

 

“NPHI strongly supports Representative Suozzi’s efforts to ensure that individuals’ final preferences and wishes are known, accessible, and honored through the introduction of the Legacy Act. Too often, families and care teams struggle to locate critical documents that express a person’s preferences for care and decision-making. A secure, national system for storing last wish documents will help health care providers uphold patients’ values and choices, reduce stress for families, and honor the deeply human desire to be known, heard, and respected during life’s final chapter,” said Tom Koutsoumpas, founder and CEO of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI).

 

"Congratulations to Representative Tom Suozzi from New York for developing and introducing The Legacy Act.  This legislation will help to promote and expand the proper use of various advanced care planning documents by supporting an evidence-based study on the best ways to store and protect these documents.  C-TAC has done a great deal of work to ensure that patients' care preferences are heard by health care professionals, recorded, and carried out to honor their wishes and dignity.  This bill will get the needed groundwork done to support individuals with serious illness and others who want to ensure their documents - such as advance directives, health care proxies, organ donor registrations, powers of attorney, and living wills - are all protected and available when needed.  The bill directs the non-partisan National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct the study, and C-TAC looks forward to supporting it as it moves through the legislative process," said Jon Broyles, CEO of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC).