Bill Would Clarify End-of-Life Treatment
When a terminally ill patient reaches the end of their life, Dr. Arlo Weltge wants the laws to be clear about dealing with the already difficult situation.
“For the most part, the physician and the patient are on the same page,” said Weltge, who practices emergency medicine in Houston. “But sometimes there’s disagreement on what is best.”
Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, filed legislation Thursday, SB 303, that provides clarification to Texas’ Advanced Directives Act, which sets out the end-of-life care for patients. Deuell’s bill adds language that specifically addresses patients “for whom life-sustaining treatment would be medically inappropriate ...
Comments (1)
Stella Fitzgibbons
As a hospital physician who has been through the "futile care" process several times (as primary physician for one patient and as a member of a hospital ethics committee), I realize that family members often need input from other relatives who may be difficult to contact. Travel to the hospital for a meeting may be harder and longer for some than for others. The time extension on this bill simply allows for practical considerations; it does not change the basic compassionate nature of Texas law, which allows terminal patients to be relieved of aggressive mechanical care even when their family insists on forcing it on them.