I’ve been meaning to point people in the direction of information about Texas’ Futile Care Law for a while now, and today seems like as good a day as any to do so.
From the Wikipedia article on the subject:
The Texas Advance Directives Act (1999), also known as the Texas Futile Care Law, describes certain provisions that are now Chapter 166 of the Texas Health & Safety Code. Controversy over these provisions mainly centers on Section 166.046, Subsection (e),[1] which allows a health care facility to discontinue life-sustaining treatment against the wishes of the patient or guardian ten days after giving written notice if the continuation of life-sustaining treatment is considered medically inappropriate by the treating medical team. For the hospital personnel to take advantage of legal immunity from prosecution for this the following process must be followed:
* The family must be given written information concerning hospital policy on the ethics consultation process.
* The family must be given 48 hours’ notice and be invited to participate in the ethics consultation process. Family members may consult their own medical specialists and legal advisors if they wish.
* The ethics consultation process must provide a written report to the family of the findings of the ethics review process.
* If the ethics consultation process fails to resolve the dispute, the hospital, working with the family, must try to arrange transfer to another provider physician and institution who are willing to give the treatment requested by the family and refused by the current treatment team.
* If after 10 days, no such provider can be found, the hospital and physician may unilaterally withhold or withdraw the therapy that has been determined to be futile.
* The party who disagrees may appeal to the relevant state court and ask the judge to grant an extension of time before treatment is withdrawn. This extension is to be granted only if the judge determines that there is a reasonable likelihood of finding a willing provider of the disputed treatment if more time is granted.
* If either the family does not seek an extension or the judge fails to grant one, futile treatment may be unilaterally withdrawn by the treatment team with immunity from civil or criminal prosecution.
Granted, this law was a slight improvement over the system as it previously existed in that it does give patients and family members ten whole days to find somewhere to move said patient to continue life sustaining care as well as an appeals process, whereas before the doctors and hospitals could just unplug anyone they wanted whenever they wanted when they decided the person was just going to die anyway … while totally ignoring the wishes of the family and any advance directives the patient themselves may have on file. It’s not really that much of an improvement in my opinion.
And who signed this piece of legislation into law thinking it was a wonderful thing? Governor George W. Bush.
But this is the is the bit I’d really like to highlight:
…the ethics committee is essentially the final decision maker in determining whether a patient’s care will continue or be terminated. The committee can decide to cease care even when 1) the patient has the financial ability (via insurance or other means) to continue to pay for care and/or 2) the patient has executed a living will or other written advance directive stating a desire to continue treatment.
Those ethics committees? That’s what I would call a Death Panel, and the pulling of life sustaining measures against the wishes of patients and family members would be called Forced Euthanasia. And don’t think it only happens to people who are in vegetative comas from which they will never return either. Read the example cases in the Wikipedia article, and you will discover otherwise. People who are cognizant and aware have and are denied life sustaining treatments under this system against their own wishes.
Funny I don’t recall hearing any of the current crop of Republicans who are concerned about Death Panels and Forced Euthanasia complaining about this law when it went into effect (or the previous system of hospitals and doctors just deciding and doing whatever they wanted), and I still don’t hear any of them complaining about it now. Odd, don’t you think? It is, after all, a perfect example of the government having its hands on life and death decisions that, according to the health care reform naysayers of today, should be made only my patients and their families. Yes, the silence on this matter is deafening.
I have no idea how these things are handled in other states, and to be honest have no desire to spend hours doing the research. If anyone else knows what the laws are regarding such end-of-life matters in their own states, please do inform me or point me in the direction of information on the internet. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the insanity of my own state’s legal systems and legislation to keep track of those of the other 40 states. I do actually have a life away from the computer that I occasionally try to live. Really … I do.