My guest today is David Leven. Our subject is “The Family Health Care Decisions Act,” which goes into force on June 1st and its implications.

David C. Leven has been the Executive Director of Compassion & Choices of New York since 2002. The mission of Compassion & Choices is to improve health and end-of-life care, expand choices at the end of life and provide high quality counseling, support and advocacy services to the terminally ill and family members and to those planning for the end of life.  Mr. Leven is a graduate of the University of Rochester and Syracuse University College of Law. Before assuming his current position he practiced public interest law for 30 years, legal services for the poor and prisoners’ rights law. Between 1973 and 1979 he was Executive Director, Monroe County Legal Assistance Corporation and between 1979 and 1999 he was Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York.  He has also served as Executive Director of the Westchester Council on Crime and Delinquency and as Deputy Director, Drug Policy Alliance. 

  Mr. Leven is a leading proponent for expanding choice at the end of life. He is also an expert on the under treatment of pain and advance directives. Mr. Leven played a leadership role in having legislation introduced and enacted in New York, in 2007, to improve pain and palliative care and to increase the number of people who complete health care proxies. He also was active in efforts to secure passage of the Family Health Care Decisions Act, enacted in 2010.  He is continuing legislative advocacy efforts to ensure that patients have their pain treated effectively and that their health and end-of-life wishes are respected.   

Mr. Leven speaks and lectures frequently to diverse professional groups and citizens, including physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, seniors, lawyers, college, law and nursing students, business men and women and religious congregants. He is a regular guest lecturer at College of New Rochelle School of Nursing and has spoken at most of the New York City area law schools as well as at Yale, Syracuse and Albany law schools. Mr. Leven has appeared on Fox Cable TV, CBS TV, Channel 2 Local News, Regional News Network TV, Fox Radio, CBS AM radio, BBC, WNYC, WVOX and WLIB. He is a periodic guest on the WBAI Health Styles program.
 
Mr. Leven has served on numerous boards and committees including the Westchester End-of-Life Coalition Board of Directors, Family Decisions Coalition, Legal Aid Committee of the New York State Bar Association, which he chaired between1978-83, and the board of the New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, which he chaired twice. Mr. Leven is a recipient of numerous awards. These include, among others, the Public Interest Law Award of the New York State Bar Association, Committee on Public Interest Law and the Westchester Civil Liberties Union, Civil Liberties Award. In 1999 he was the Distinguished Public Interest Lawyer in Residence at Touro Law School.

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