"AUSTIN — A Texas law that allows hospitals to end life support after a 10-day notice for patients deemed medically futile would be changed to give patients' families more time under legislation the Senate approved Monday.
The unanimous Senate vote came after private negotiations in Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's office resulted in a compromise among Texas Right to Life, the Texas Hospital Association, disability activists and others."
As the article states, the current futile care law only requires a two day notice to families of an ethics committee meeting and then merely gives the family 10 days in which to transfer the loved one to another facility before life-support can be terminated. If this new legislation is signed into law, it will afford a seven day notice of the meeting, 21 days in which to transfer and another 20 days should the family seek court review.
Deuell further stated,
"One key point in the compromise, he said, was an agreement that nutrition and hydration — food and water — won't be discontinued.
"So we won't starve or dehydrate a patient to death, which is not pleasant," he said.
That the nutrition and hydration issue was addressed, is quite promising.
The proposed law does address some of the concerns of the vulnerable and, while not perfect, is indeed an improvement over the current law and what looks like a ten day vacate or be terminated notice.
1 comments:
You can't be too careful when it comes to life and death issues. Once life is allowed to slip away, you can never, ever change your mind and bring it back. If you're going to err, best to do it on the side of caution.
This change is a good move.
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