Life-Affirming Health Care Concepts
146. Life-Affirming Patient Protection
We call for the Texas Legislature to secure due process and the right for vulnerable Texas patients by continuing to reform Chapter 166 of the Health and Safety Code (Texas Advance Directives Act) by:
a) Repealing the unethical, unconstitutional, unprecedented, and anti-life 25-Day Rule in Section 166.046, Health and Safety Code, and replacing it with a truly life-affirming law that requires physicians to adhere to a patient’s or surrogate’s medical decision about life-sustaining treatment, and that provides for physicians who disagree with the patient’s decision to transfer the patient to another physician or facility that will honor the decision to continue lifesustaining treatment.
b) Improving language that protects Texas patients with disabilities to clarify and strengthen that disability should not be a considered factor.
c) Guaranteeing judicial review, ensuring the ability to appeal a hospital committee’s decision and provide impartial legal recourse.
