Requirements for Surrogate Decision-Making – N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2965

A surrogate may make consent to a do not resuscitate order (DNR) on behalf of an adult that lacks capacity if (1) the patient has a terminal condition; (2) the patient is permanently unconscious; (3) attempts to resuscitate would be futile; or (4) “resuscitation would impose an extraordinary burden on the patient in light of the patient's medical condition and the expected outcome of resuscitation for the patient.” Consent may occur in 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. 

A surrogate’s identity and their consent to a DNR must be placed in the incapacitated adult’s medical chart.