Trying to Google it and found this..
http://www.premack.com/columns/1999/990604.htmThe 76th Legislature closed its regular session on May 31, 1999. It considered hundreds of proposals, and voted to make many of them into law. Several important bills affecting Seniors are in line to become law. One of them is called the "Advance Directives Act."
Governor Bush vetoed a similar bill that was passed by the 75th Legislature in 1997. According to the Governor’s office, he vetoed the 1997 bill because it contained "several provisions that would permit a physician to deny life-sustaining procedures to a patient who desires them."
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.
http://www.premack.com/columns/1999/990813.htmThe 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. The new statute is called the Texas "Advance Directives Act." It could have a profound effect on Seniors and anyone else who finds themselves caught in the cogs of the health care establishment. The law updates three important but outdated statutes: the Natural Death law, the Health Care Power of Attorney law, and the Do-Not-Resuscitate law.
The new statute liberalizes the situations under which you can avoid artificial life support. Under it, life support can be withheld or withdrawn if you have a terminal condition that is expected to cause your death within six months. The old law required death to be "imminent" or due shortly. This allows you, as a patient, to avoid life support at an earlier date and gives you more control over the final months of life.
The new statute also authorizes you to avoid artificial life support if you have an "irreversible condition" from which you are expected to die. There is no time limit imposed by the new statute. Theoretically, this could be used to remove life support from a comatose patient, even if life support could have maintained the vital signs for years.
There was a potential legal conflict if you signed both a Directive and a Health Care Power of Attorney under the old laws. In both documents, you could choose surrogate decision-makers in case you became too ill to care for yourself. If your decision-makers were two different people, they could argue about your health care. The Advance Directives Act consolidates the laws, eliminating this conflict by requiring your decision-makers to follow the instructions you give in your Directive. A new disclosure provision also warns you to select the same person as decision-maker in both documents.
----------------------------
edited for extra link
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
