This blog has visited the topic of futile care policies more than once. These policies allow hospitals to overrule advanced directives and/or the wishes of family members in removing/refusing life-sustaining treatment to someone unable to express his or her wishes.
Of all the states, Texas has given hospitals the most power in these situations. And the hospitals, safely protected by statute, have been aggressive in implementing their power to overrule families in “futile care” cases.
There have been repeated efforts to try to provide more protections to patients and families in Texas. Right now, it looks like the protection is allocated solely to the medical providers (or, I guess, “non-providers” might be more accurate).
Here’s the latest from the Dallas Morning News:
AUSTIN, Texas – Those who want to extend the time some hospital patients may live before their life support is cut off are worried that their proposal is running into a wall at the Capitol.
Legislation by state Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would require life-sustaining treatment to continue for patients whose condition is deemed futile by doctors until a transfer to another medical facility can be arranged, if their family requests it.
Currently, hospitals can stop life support after 10 days in certain cases if the patient is terminally or irreversibly ill and cannot express treatment wishes.
“No other state in the country has a law that Draconian,” Hughes said. “The balance of power is completely shifted against the patients and the families.”
Hughes’ bill is being pushed by Texas Right to Life, a group best known for its anti-abortion views. Groups for the disabled, including the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities and Not Dead Yet of Texas, also back Hughes’ proposal, as does the American Civil Liberties Union.
Got that? NDY, the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Texas Right to Life and the American Civil Liberties Union all back this bill.
That’s a broad base of support if I’ve ever see one. But the bill isn’t going anywhere.
That’s because the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Hospital Association, among others, oppose the bill.
I doubt those organizations could claim to represent as many constituents as the combined supporters of RTL, the disability coalition, NDY and the ACLU – I will bet that the TMA and THA give lots of money to political candidates in Texas. That’s the simplest, if cynical explanation for the current standstill.
And it doesn’t bode well for the future in Texas. –Stephen Drake