From 1985 through 2016, the task force issued reports with policy recommendations on a broad range of bioethical topics, including brain death, do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, health care proxies, surrogate decision-making, the allocation of organs for transplantation, surrogacy, medical aid-in-dying, genetic testing and screening, the allocation of ventilators in a pandemic, and research involving human subjects who lack capacity.
Many of the task force's recommendations were enacted into New York State laws, promulgated as regulations, or cited in judicial decisions.
Task force reports have also influenced the practice of health care professionals and institutions in New York and beyond, and are widely referenced in books and journals on medicine, law and ethics.
He recognized the multidisciplinary nature of these issues, and concluded that an advisory body, composed of members with diverse disciplines, backgrounds and viewpoints, might help reach a consensus on policy recommendations.
A prominent and then-recent precedent for this approach was the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
The executive order called for a body of 23 members appointed by the Governor and chaired by NYS Health Commissioner.
The initial task force members were persons prominent in medicine, nursing, law, philosophy and ethics, civil rights and religion.
The Empire State Bioethics Consortium now provides access on its website to electronic versions of nearly all of the task force's work.
Those issues are now largely resolved along the lines proposed by the task force, with policies that are generally accepted and regarded as successful.
The task force was formed to propose policies on controversial issues, so nearly every one of its recommendations encountered some opposition, and/or criticism post-adoption.