Ethics Committee and Futile Care

Don't kid yourself.  Death panels are alive and well.  In fact, they already exist.  Consider Texas - the Texas Advanced Directives Act of 1999 became law with broad support.  One unintended consequence is shocking.  If a family or a patient wants health care to continue, but the attending physician does not, the Texas law allows a hospital committee to have the final say  under the guise of medical futility. 

 

Texas law only requires the hospital to provide the patient and family 48 hours notice before a hospital ethics committee meets and makes a decision.  Once the hospital ethics committee decides that care is futile care, the family is given 10 days to find a facility that will accept the patient or the hospital and doctor can end curative care.  Texas is not alone.  Virginia has a similar law.