News Intelligence Analysis
From our correspondent Carolyn Kay:
Hypocrisy of Bush, DeLay and GOP Exposed!
March 8, 2005, 12:33AM
Hospitals can end life support
Decision hinges on patient's
ability to pay, prognosis
By LEIGH HOPPER
A patient's inability to pay for medical care combined with a prognosis that renders further care futile are two reasons a hospital might suggest cutting off life support, the chief medical officer at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital said Monday.
Dr. David Pate's comments came as the family of Spiro Nikolouzos fights to keep St. Luke's from turning off the ventilator and artificial feedings keeping the 68-year-old grandfather alive…
State law allows doctors to remove patients from life support if the hospital's ethics committee agrees, but it requires that the hospital give families 10 days to find another facility.
A similar case is still in the courts. Texas Children's Hospital wants to discontinue life support on 5-month-old Sun Hudson, who was diagnosed shortly after birth with a fatal form of dwarfism. His mother, Wanda Hudson, wants her son's care to continue at the hospital…
The law mentioned above was signed by none other than then
Governor George W. Bush. See the actual law in the article below.
Paul Premack, JD CELA
San Antonio Express-News
August 13, 1999
Medical Advance Directives (Part 1)
Dear Mr. Premack: I came across your column from June 4, 1999 concerning the new bill on health care legalities. Was it passed by the legislature and signed into law? Do you have any pertinent information about the how the bill affects us, and what documents we should have if it becomes law? Thanks! – D. J. P.
The bill you refer to was SB 1260, and it did pass both houses of the Texas legislature. Governor Bush was required to veto or sign it before June 20, 1999 – and he returned from a campaign trip just in time to sign the bill into law. Its effective date is September 1, 1999, so we have about two more weeks under the old laws before the new statute takes over…
S.B. No. 1260 - Effective Date: September 1, 1999
AN ACT
relating to certain advance directives for medical treatment; providing administrative penalties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:…
Sec. 166.039 [672.009]. PROCEDURE WHEN PERSON HAS NOT EXECUTED OR ISSUED A DIRECTIVE AND IS INCOMPETENT OR INCAPABLE OF COMMUNICATION. (a) If an adult qualified patient has not executed or issued a directive and is [comatose,] incompetent[,] or otherwise mentally or physically incapable of communication, the attending physician and the patient's legal guardian or an agent under a medical power of attorney may make a treatment decision that may include a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment [procedures] from the patient.
(b) If the patient does not have a legal guardian or an agent under a medical power of attorney, the attending physician and one person, if available, from one [at least two persons, if available,] of the following categories, in the following priority, may make a treatment decision that may include a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment [procedures]:
(1) the patient's spouse;…
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