Thaddeus Mason Pope

Minnesota Healthcare Decision Making

On this page, I collect some key legal resources on healthcare decision -making in Minnesota:

Battery
Infomed consent
Advance directives
Default surrogates
POLST
Guardianship
Medical aid in dying
Assisted suicide
VSED
Brain death

Battery

Kohoutek v Hafner (Minn 1986)

Mohr v Williams (Minn 1905)

Informed Consent

Minnesota Patients’ Bill of Rights

Cornfeldt v Tongen (Minn 1977)

KAC v. Benson (Minn 1985)

Advance Directives - Law

Patient Bill of Rights

Health Care Decisions Act

In re Barnes (Hennepin County 2011)

Pope - MINNESOTA HEALTH CARE NEWS (Nov. 2015)

Advance Directives - Tools

Honoring Choices Minnesota: A collaborative, community-based Advance Care Planning initiative led by Twin Cities Medical Society through its Foundation.

Five Wishes: The most widely used advance directive or living will in America. It is often called the “living will with a heart and soul” because it includes the things that matter the most. Unlike most other advance directives, it is easy to use and understand.

Honoring Choices MN FORM

Catholic FORM

Halachic FORM

Psychiatric Advance Directive FORM

UMN Extension FORM

Wilson - JAGS 2014 (AD completion in MN)

NRLC Will to Live Form

Default Surrogates

Minn. S.F. 2567 (2025)

PPT to Minnesota Aging Conference (Oct. 26, 2017)

Minnesota Medical Association Policies

Butcher v. Fashingbauer (Ramsey County Dist. Ct. 1995)

Butcher v. Fashingbauer (Ramsey County Dist. Ct. 1994)

Butcher v. Fashingbauer (Feb. 1993) (Complaint)

Blumer, Minnesota Medicine (Feb. 1995)

Butcher v. Fashingbauer (Ramsey Cty., Minn. 1994)

POLST

Minnesota POLST: The Provider Orders For Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form is a portable medical order that can give patients with advanced serious illness the option to exercise increased control over the treatment they do and do not want to receive at the end of life. The program is hosted by the Minnesota Medical Association.

Draft revised form POLST MN

Whitman v Highland Manor (2014) (Complaint)

MN DOH Inspection Report - Oak Hills 2013

Sandler - STAR TRIBUNE (March 2020)

Guardianship

In re Tschumy (Minn 2014)

In re Tschumy (Minn App 2013)

In re Tschumy (Hennepin County 2012)

In re Helga Wanglie (Hennepin Cty, Minn 1991)

In re Tschumy (Hennepin Cty., Minn. Oct. 2012)

Medical Aid in Dying

Minn. H.F. 2998 (2025)

Minn. S.F. 3215 (2025)

Thaddeus Pope - Testimony on H.F. 1930, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE FINANCE AND POLICY, MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE (March 18, 2024).

Thaddeus Pope - Testimony on H.F. 1930, COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, FINANCE, AND CIVIL LAW, MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE (March 12, 2024).

Thaddeus Pope - Testimony on H.F. 1930, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND POLICY, MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE (March 7, 2024).

Thaddeus Pope - Testimony on H.F. 1930, COMMITTEE ON HEALTH FINANCE AND POLICY, MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE (January 25, 2024).

All Testimony - Minnesota House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee (March 18, 2024)

Pope Testimony on HF1930 (January 25, 2024)

Bill for January 25, 2024 Hearing

Pope Roundtable Presentation (September 6, 2023)

MN House State Fair Poll (Sept. 2023)

Minn. S.F. 1813 (2023)

Min. H.F. 1930 (2023)

Video of January 28, 2022 ethics grand rounds at the University of Minnesota: "MN End-of-Life Option Act: Medical Aid in Dying is a Compassionate Option for Terminally Ill Patient."