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Statutory Text

SEC. 1553 [42 U.S.C. 18113]. PROHIBITION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
ON ASSISTED SUICIDE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Government, and any State or
local government or health care provider that receives Federal financial
assistance under this Act (or under an amendment made
by this Act) or any health plan created under this Act (or under
an amendment made by this Act), may not subject an individual
or institutional health care entity to discrimination on the basis
that the entity does not provide any health care item or service furnished
for the purpose of causing, or for the purpose of assisting
in causing, the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide,
euthanasia, or mercy killing.
(b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘health care entity’’
includes an individual physician or other health care professional,
a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance
organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of
health care facility, organization, or plan.
(c) CONSTRUCTION AND TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SERVICES.— Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to apply to, or to affect,
any limitation relating to—
(1) the withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment
or medical care;
(2) the withholding or withdrawing of nutrition or hydration;
(3) abortion; or
(4) the use of an item, good, benefit, or service furnished
for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort, even if such
use may increase the risk of death, so long as such item, good,
benefit, or service is not also furnished for the purpose of causing,
or the purpose of assisting in causing, death, for any reason.
(d) ADMINISTRATION.—The Office for Civil Rights of the Department
of Health and Human Services is designated to receive complaints
of discrimination based on this section.