Texas Patient Rights Texas House Committee on Public Health

Tell Others about Advance Directives Act of 1999

Send a Letter to Friends and Family

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Dear Friends and Family Members,

You may have heard of Andrea Clark, a patient at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas who fought for her life this past year as the hospital tried to remove her from life support against her will and against the will of her entire family.

Like most people who hear Andrea's story, you may be shocked to learn that it is legal in Texas for a hospital to remove life support from a patient even if the patient is conscious, fully insured, and wants life support to continue.

The Texas Advance Directives Act of 1999,  allows a hospital "ethics" committee to override patients' ethics and decisions regarding critical care and end of life matters. If we  overlook the inevitable misdiagnoses medical professionals make, the law might not seem so harsh on the surface. But in practice, the law not only violates patients' most basic human rights, it provides blanket protection for hospitals and medical professionals against civil and criminal liability for medical errors, negligence, and financial conflicts of interest, among other issues, while leaving patients without even the barest of basic rights afforded the most vile of convicted criminals.

Andrea's story is not unique. In August of this year, Andrea's family joined many other families who testified about similar experiences before the Public Health Committee of the Texas House of Representatives. In some cases, patients were transferred to a new facility where they were correctly diagnosed, and recovered fully. These transfers typically occurred only when the press began to focus public attention on the case, embarrassing hospitals that invoked the "futile care" law on patients. In other cases, negative press attention pressured hospitals to grant "stays of execution" allowing patients to die naturally (as in Andrea's case) or to continue to receive treatment beyond the 10-day deadline, so patients could recover enough that life support was no longer required. It is important to note that it was only when the press became involved that hospitals backed off the threat of euthanizing patients against their will.

What happened to Andrea can happen to anyone in Texas, regardless of age or insurance coverage. The next victim of this law could be your mother or father, your brother, sister, or your child, or you. The cruelty of the law extends beyond the patient to their families, at a time when they are often so consumed with worry and stress that they cannot adequately defend the life of their hospitalized loved one.

We may never know the number of patients involuntarily euthanized under the Texas "futile care" law, patients whose families had neither the strength nor the audacity to fight such "mercy killings."  It is for those families that Andrea's family continues the fight that began when Andrea was sentenced to death by a hospital ethics committee.

For Andrea's family, and for the majority of people with whom they share this information, the morality of this issue is clear: the patient's values and instructions outweigh all others. Perhaps the God-like power afforded the medical community by this law, accounts for their loss of moral clarity on this issue.

Andrea's family and friends intend to fight to change the law so that patients' rights and values cannot be trumped by doctors, hospitals, or anyone not specifically designated by the patient: They will fight to amend the law to require hospitals to honor patients' decisions to continue life support by requiring treatment pending transfer to another facility acceptable to the patient or their designee. They will also fight the blanket immunity from civil and criminal liability provided medical professionals by the "futile care" law.

No one expects this to be an easy fight and they need our help and the help of everyone you can enlist in this effort. The longer it takes to change the law, the more innocent lives are at risk and may be lost. So please, do something today to help. Below, I've provided a short list of things you can do immediately to help this cause.  Learn more about how to help by going to the website: www.texaspatientrights.org. There you can get more information about the law, case studies, how and where to write your legislators, as well as information about medical and insurance lobbies' contributions to election campaigns.

Thank you for helping us make Texas a safer, more just place for patients and their families.

10 Things You Can Do to Help Change the Texas "Futile Care" Law

1. Tell people about the law.  The "futile care" law is Texas' dirty little secret. Expose it. Tell everyone you know about it. Tell members of your church, your book club, your karate class, your dance class, your writing group, your family; tell your kids' teachers, soccer team; tell your babysitter, your hairdresser, your co-workers. Tell EVERYONE, every chance you get. (Even if you don't live in Texas, you can tell friends and family members who do live in Texas about the law)
   2. Go to www.texaspatientrights.org to learn more about the law and what you can do about it.
   3. Write your legislators and let them know your values and that you are paying attention to their votes on this issue. (Learn who your legislators are and where to write them at the website: www.texaspatientrights.org )
   4. Write about this issue to the editor of your local paper.
   5. Post about this issue in online newsgroups or local internet bulletin boards.
   6. Write about this issue on your blog or myspace page.
   7. Write about the issue in an email and send it to ten friends and tell them to send it to ten friends.
   8. If you have your own website, blog, or myspace page, link to the Texas Patient Rights website: www.texaspatientrights.org
   9. Learn the practical facts about the law, not the comforting myths.
      Example:
      Myth: Patients need not be euthanized if they're willing to move to another facility.
      Fact: Once a patient has the "death by ethics committee" sentence passed, most facilities will not consider accepting a patient.
      Fact: In very complex cases, it is difficult, if not impossible to find a qualified facility to accept the patient.
      Fact: In matters of negligence or medical errors, medical providers have an incentive to thwart transfer of patients rather than to transfer them.
      Note: You can learn more at the website: www.texaspatientrights.org
  10. Copy this letter and send it to your friends, asking them to join the effort.

Information on this website is informational only and is not legal advice. If you have questions or a situation requiring advice, please contact an attorney.

Texas Patient Rights

Tell Others about Advance Directives Act of 1999

Send a Letter to Friends and Family

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Texas Futile Care Law

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