Medical experts says about 80 percent of New Yorkers are living without a health care proxy, a document that names a person to be your voice and make medical decisions if you become so ill you cannot speak for yourself. With so few health proxies in place, legislation has just been passed giving the patient a voice even if a proxy doesn't exist. Our Britt Godshalk explains.

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It's a situation that medical experts say has been all too common in hospitals and nursing homes in New York. A crucial medical decision must be made regarding an incapacitated patient, whose family members say they know what's best. But they don't have a healthcare proxy. So, who makes the call? The health care provider's legal staff.

"Family members are often shocked to find out they don't have some kind of default decision making authority. In most states they would, but not here," Swidler said.

"It's been really difficult on families to tell them that first they don't have that authority and second their only recourse is to go to the courts," said Kathy Faber-Langendoen, M.D., Upstate Medical University bioethics professor.

That is, until now. On Tuesday, Governor Paterson signed the Family Healthcare Decisions Act requiring health care providers to consult with a surrogate unless the medical need is too urgent, giving the incapacitated patient a voice even without a health care proxy.

"This is humane, this is ethical, this is the right legislation and almost every other state has it and today New York will have it as well," said Governor Paterson.

The legislation was stuck in government committees for 17 years until it passed overwhelmingly this year in both houses. The law now provides a process by which a surrogate is chosen.

"And the first person, if you don't have a legal guardian, would be a spouse or domestic partner and if there's no spouse, then it would be an adult child and if there's no adult child it's a parent, so there's a hierarchy of people who are given default decisional authority," Faber-Langendoen said.

"For some patients, there are no family members or caring friend able to make such decisions. In those cases, the law allows decisions to be made by a committee with input from the patient care providers," said a member of the New York State Nurses Association.

Despite the law, medical experts urge New Yorkers to remember that the best way to ensure your wishes will be met in the event of emergency is to set up a health care proxy in advance.