Daily Kos

It's 1999. You're Terri Schiavo, but you live in Texas

Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:44:40 PM PDT

As Texas governor in 1999, Bush signed SB 1260, which permits a doctor to withdraw all life support (including food and water) from an incommunicado patient - even if her advance directive requests that she receive all possible care.

(More below the fold)

It's in here, particularly section 166.046.

This statute governs, among other things, the removal of life-sustaining care (which includes food and water) from an incommunicado patient who has an "irreversible condition". An "irreversible condition" is defined as a medical condition:

(A) that may be treated but is never cured or eliminated;
(B)  that leaves a person unable to care for or make decisions for the person's own self; and
(C)  that, without life-sustaining treatment provided in accordance with the prevailing standard of medical care, is fatal.

s.166.002(9)

If a doctor wishes to withdraw such treatment, she must first seek review by "an ethics or medical committee". s.166.046(a). If the committee determines that the treatment is "inappropriate", the patient has 10 days (!) to find a new treatment facility, after which they can pull the plug. s.166.046(e).

Thus, if Terri Schiavo had lived in Texas during Bush's reign, her doctor (with "ethics committee" approval) could have yanked her stomach tube even if she explicitly had requested that it not be yanked.

Here's an article about a man caught by this very law. His hospital wants to yank his life support because its thinks it's futile, and (apparently) because he can't pay. His wife wants the care to continue:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3073295

[Update] And here's another case concerning a baby. Hmm.

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The GOP's take on Schiavo is

74%20 votes
3%1 votes
11%3 votes
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