Texas Futile Care Law Scorned by State AG


(The Corner) – I have long believed that Texas’s futile care law is unconstitutional. Specifically, the law permits a hospital bioethics committee to kick a patient out of wanted life-sustaining treatment that is working–e.g.., keeping the patient alive–based on the subjective values of doctors and the members of the hospital administration-appointed committee.

A lawsuit (Kelly v Houston Methodist Hospital) sues HMH for its attempt to force a now deceased patient out of the ICU. Now, Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, argues that the law upon which the hospital’s decision was based is unconstitutional. CONTINUE