Profession
Plug pulled on Texas futile-care bill
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 18, 2007
A Texas bill aimed at extending the time families of medically futile patients have to find another medical home itself ran out of time.
The measure that the Senate passed was scheduled for a House vote in late May. But it did not come up for debate before a midnight procedural deadline. The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Dianne White Delisi, would have given a medically futile patient's family a total of 48 days to find another facility to continue care or take the matter to court.
A spate of headline-grabbing cases in which hospitals gave families the 10 days' notice required under a 1999 law before withdrawing futile life-sustaining treatment sparked the legislation. Anti-abortion and disability rights groups pushed for an earlier bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Bob Deuell, MD, that would have forced hospitals and physicians to continue providing care until the family could find another facility willing to accept the patient.
Dr. Deuell's measure earned strong opposition from hospitals and physicians, who say that providing extraordinary life-sustaining treatment in futile cases is medically and ethically inappropriate because it holds no benefit for the patient. But the Texas Hospital Assn. and the Texas Medical Assn. signed on to the Delisi bill, marketed as a compromise.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/18/prbf0618.htm.
