Bush Signed this into Law when he was Governor of Texas

[still_one]

Baby Removed From Life Support in Texas

Tue Mar 15, 6:28 PM ET
By KRISTIE RIEKEN, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - A critically ill 5-month-old was taken off life support and died Tuesday, a day after a judge cleared the way for doctors to halt care they believed to be futile. The infant's mother had fought to keep him alive.



Sun Hudson had been diagnosed with a fatal genetic disorder called thanatophoric dysplasia, a condition characterized by a tiny chest and lungs too small to support life. He had been on a ventilator since birth.


Wanda Hudson unsuccessfully fought to continue her son's medical care. She believed he needed time to grow and could eventually be weaned off the ventilator.


"I wanted life for my son," Hudson said Tuesday. "The hospital gave up on him too soon."


Texas law allows hospitals to end life support in cases such as this but requires that families be given 10 days to find another facility to care for the patient. No hospital was found to take the baby.

...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=10&u=/ap/20050315/ap_on_re_us/life_support_fight

[Fridays Child]

1. This keeps being said but I haven't seen a corroborating link, yet.

Can anybody provide one?

[oldcoot]

6. Several links

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D88VKEMO1.html

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/healthlawprof_blog/2005/03/index.html
(Look for March 16th)



http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3079622

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Here's some more links and some excerpts

This link shows that Bush did indeed sign this law.

New Statutory Rules for Witnessing Advance Directives in Texas

By S. Van McCrary, Health Law and Policy Institute

On June 18, 1999, Governor George W. Bush signed Texas Senate Bill 1260 into law. This bill consolidates all the previous Texas statutes related to advance directives--including the Natural Death Act, Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, and Out-of-Hospital DNR Orders--into a unified statutory form.
http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlawperspectives/Death/990706New.html

This link has the actual Advance Directives Act which Bush signed.

Here's the part that says you have 10 days after a medical doctor and a review board decided you're terminal to find a facility willing to continue life support at your own expense. If you're familiar with the case mentioned in to OP you'll notice how hospitals don't jump at taking on these cases for free. When you fail to find a hospital to take your loved one they pull the plug.

(e) If the patient or the person responsible for the health
care decisions of the patient is requesting life-sustaining
treatment that the attending physician has decided and the review
process has affirmed is inappropriate treatment, the patient shall
be given available life-sustaining treatment pending transfer
under Subsection (d). The patient is responsible for any costs
incurred in transferring the patient to another facility. The
physician and the health care facility are not obligated to provide
life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day after the written
decision required under Subsection (b) is provided to the patient
or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the
patient unless ordered to do so under Subsection (g).
(e-1) If during a previous admission to a facility a
patient's attending physician and the review process under
Subsection (b) have determined that life-sustaining treatment is
inappropriate, and the patient is readmitted to the same facility
within six months from the date of the decision reached during the
review process conducted upon the previous admission, Subsections
(b) through (e) need not be followed if the patient's attending
physician and a consulting physician who is a member of the ethics
or medical committee of the facility document on the patient's
readmission that the patient's condition either has not improved or
has deteriorated since the review process was conducted.
(f) Life-sustaining treatment under this section may not be
entered in the patient's medical record as medically unnecessary
treatment until the time period provided under Subsection (e) has
expired.

This section shows how the law Bush signed gave the spouse legal rights over the parents if the person is unable to communicate.

§ 166.039. 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 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 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 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:
(1) the patient's spouse;
(2) the patient's reasonably available adult children;
(3) the patient's parents; or
(4) the patient's nearest living relative.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/HS/content/htm/hs.002.00.000166.00.htm

[Fridays Child]

9. The way this reads there is not even a requirement to determine...

...what measures the patient would want to be implemented on his or her behalf. If the spouse and one doctor agree to stop treatment, it's stopped. The parents get a say in the process only if no spouse or adult child is available.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. If you don't have a legally binding Advance Directive, that is true.

The order of guardianship is very clear in that the parents are third behind the spouse and the adult children.

To be clear, if you read the entire Advance Directives Act there are ways to have your choices carried out. These, however, become void if your are decreed terminal and on life support without a private means to pay for your care. IF you fall into this category support is removed no matter what you or your legal guardian's wish may be.

[Dr Ron]

2. And now they lie about it

GOP Claim: The legislation was there to help ensure that actions were being taken that were in accordance with the wishes of the patient or the patient's family."

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=594

[Dr Ron]

4. Covered elsewhere

LUTD covered this a few days ago at http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=581

Here's a link from the post:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/front/3087387

I've also seen other news stories mention it.

Also see my ohter post here regarding this coming up at this morning's White House press briefing (where they lied)

[oldcoot]

7. Can we ask Wanda Hudson and Jannette Nikolouzos

if they felt that the legislation protected their wishes?

[deacon]

3. McClellan’s lied about this this morning n/t

[yankeedem]

5. No fundies at Sun's bedside

Of course, Sun is black. Jesus only saves white people /sarcasm