It's 1999. You're Terri Schiavo, but you live in Texas
by Tonal Crow
Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:44:40 PM PDT
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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:
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.