Requirements for Decision-Making on Behalf of a Minor Patient – N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2967

A parent or legal guardian may make consent to a do not resuscitate order (DNR) on behalf of minor child if a physician determines that (1) the child has a terminal condition; (2) the child is permanently unconscious; (3) attempts to resuscitate the child would be futile; or (4) “resuscitation would impose an extraordinary burden on the [child] in light of the [child’s] medical condition and the expected outcome of resuscitation for the [child]” and another physician concurs in this determination. Both the determination and the concurrence must be placed in the child’s medical chart. 

Parents or legal guardians may, after considering the child’s wishes and religious beliefs, consent to the DNR through a writing that is signed, dated, and witnessed by at least one adult or orally in front of two adult witnesses of which one is a physician at the hospital in which the incapacitated adult is treated.