If you or a family member became ill or fell unconscious and needed medical care, who should decide whether and what type of treatment you receive?
A. The patient, including his wishes expressed through a medical directive.
B. The family of the patient, when the patient is not capable to make a decision.
C. The doctor or hospital administration.
If you chose A or B, did you know that despite your decision to continue care, that Texas law allows doctors to override your decision? Some are even trying to give the hospitals more power over your life by expanding current law.
Imagine your son or daughter, or even your mother or father, at the receiving end of a so-called ethics committee decision to override your wishes and terminate care of your loved one.
We at Texas Right to Life don't need to imagine this because we deal with this scenario frequently. Each month, many families contact Texas Right to Life and plead for our help to protect the lives of their loved ones' because a hospital panel decided to terminate care against their wishes, even if they had the ability to pay.
We asked Texans on the street what they thought of this. See for yourself the shock on their faces when the interviewees learn that if they want continued care, their wishes can be trampled, ignored, and reversed by a hospital committee with the full power of Texas law to shield the committee's decision.
Watch this short video, sign our petition, share with your friends, and tell legislators to let patients and families make their own decisions, not an unelected body of hospital staffers.
We were criticized for using that term “death panel,” but we don't know what else to call a committee that decides when a patient lives or dies. “Ethics committee” is a euphemistic legal term, which we hardly find appropriate to describe unethical decisions. Friend, death panels are real in Texas and we must put an end to the power grab by big medicine right now.
Unfortunately, hospital administrators are trying to add more process and power in imposing quality of life value judgements on the helpless in their hospitals, and big medicine is pressuring their allies in the legislature to pass SB 303. Help Texas Right to Life stop SB 303 by signing our petition. Texas Right to Life wants you to be in charge of your health care decisions.