DU Task: Expose Bush TX Law, would have Shiavo dead n TX

It is up to us to get this story out there! :kick: this post if you agree!

Bush's Texas Life-Support Law

And in what many liberal bloggers are calling an example of outright hypocrisy, Bush signed a Texas law in 1999 that created a legal mechanism to allow attending physicians and hospital ethics boards to pull the plug on patients -- even if that specifically contradicts patient or family wishes.

As it happens, a major test case for that law was resolved just last week -- with a baby's death.

Leigh Hopper writes in the Houston Chronicle: "The baby wore a cute blue outfit with a teddy bear covering his bottom. The 17-pound, 6-month-old boy wiggled with eyes open and smacked his lips, according to his mother.

"Then at 2 p.m. today, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his Sept. 25 birth. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.

"Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now. . . .

"Texas law allows hospitals discontinue life sustaining care, even if patient family members disagree."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54002-2005Mar21.html?sub=AR

Kick!

They claim the law is to ensure consent

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=594

Baby dies after hospital removes breathing tube
Case is the first in which a judge allowed a hospital to discontinue care
By LEIGH HOPPER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Then at 2 p.m. Tuesday, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his birth Sept. 25. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.

...

Texas law allows hospitals to discontinue life-sustaining care, even if a patient's family members disagree. A doctor's recommendation must be approved by a hospital's ethics committee, and the family must be given 10 days from written notice of the decision to try and locate another facility for the patient.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/front/3087387

(Press Secretary) McClellan stated: "The legislation was there to help ensure that actions were being taken that were in accordance with the wishes of the patient or the patient's family."
But the HOSPITAL made Sun's decision! And Sun's mother DIDN'T want her son's breathing tube removed!!!

:shrug:
rocknation

but I didn't know a baby had died as a result of this law-will add this information to my argument tomorrow.

The baby story is the one I tell mostly. Yesterday I told a friend of mine at church about the little baby and you could tell in her eyes she was sad and disgusted (and she voted for Bush) and I told her about the 99 law he signed that was made by the same people doing this. So if Schiavo was in Texas she wouldn't have even been a live this long.

The point is that Bush says the life of a brain-dead person is sacred if the person can pay his hospital bill. The Medicare funding of the brain-dead man in Houston has run out...therefore, according to Bush's 1999 law, if the hospital bill is not being paid the hospital can pull the plug on a person in a persistent vegetative state.

Schiavo would be alive in Texas because her hospital bill has always been paid. That means, to Bush, her life is sacred.

It's the indigent brain-dead people whose lives, according to Bush, are not sacred, because he says it's okay to pull the plug if they can't pay their hospital bill.

Bush's blatant hypocrisy and flagrant use of his so-called religious zeal for the sake of politicking is now completely out in the open.

Ratfuck Diary (http://ratfuckdiary.blogspot.com)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swmo4progress/message/892

Post where you posted it, keep this going! Spread around the world!

Her care has been paid for out of the $1 million proceeds of a medical malpratice suit.

Under the law passed in TX and signed by Gov. Bush, she would have been unplugged long ago due to her *inability to pay*!

Larry made a BID DEAL about this and so did Terri's husband Mike. He said it was hypocracy that in Texas.....the baby died and they are keeping his brain dead wife alive with a feeding tube.

"rushing" to sign the bill.

Of course, the fact is, he didn't HAVE to rush, they could have sent him the papers in Texas. This as well as a partial list of all the things he SHOULD have rushed for but didn't is in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1675026

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/HS/content/htm/hs.002.00.000166.00.htm

I also really like the way Digby set up the reeking hypocrisy on his blog (Hullabaloo) yesterday:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_03_20_digbysblog_archive.html#111134934659869241
Between his piece ("The Days of Our Lives") and the material at links cited in it, he's really got a good take on it in my opinion.

Monitoring the mainstream coverage (what little there is) I note that Bush is really getting a pass on this. The few who relate this to the Schiavo case are someitmes even making Bush's actions look noble. The argument is that Texas previously had a worse law and that Bush acted to make it more difficult for hospitals to withhold life support.

It may be true that the alternative could have been worse, but we must stress that the fact remains that life support was discontinued without the consent of the mother and that it is hypocritical of the Republicans to make so much noise about Terri Schiavo and totally ignore this case.