An email from my sister

[Th1onein]

Please read this...your loved ones' lives may literally depend on it.

If you're looking for a reason to be outraged, look no further than the state of Texas where patients can be legally euthanized by hospitals against their will, regardless of their level of consciousness, their ability to pay, and regardless of their decisions to continue medical treatment. The law that allows this is part of the Health and Safety Code. Section 166.046 of that code, the Advance Directives Act of 1999, also known as the "Futile Care Law," allows patients' ethics, religious values, and clear instructions to be discounted to accomodate the ethics of the attending physician. The law not only violates patients' most basic human rights, it also provides blanket protection for hosptials 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.

This is no urban myth. My family experienced this first hand with our sister, Andrea Clark, who was sentenced to die by the St. Luke's "Ethics" Committee (St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston). It was only by engaging the press and citizens like you that we were able to stop the hospital from removing Andrea from life support against her will. The biggest obstacle we ran into is that people often didn't believe us when we told our story. The law is so glaringly immoral that people just had trouble believing we weren't omitting important information. But Andrea's case wasn't even the most outrageous. When we went to Austin to testify before the House Public Health Committee, we heard similar stories where hospitals had passed death sentences on patients. Of the families that testified, all of them fought the hospital and through their efforts, some of those patients are still living today.

Any family that has had to endure this kind of battle with a hospital while dealing with the stress of a critically ill loved one has been put through hell. This isn't right and it isn't right to euthanize patients against their will. And my family is committed to getting the law changed so that hospitals have to continue to treat the patient until the patient is transferred to another facility.

The Texas Legislature is in session now and there are proposals to change this law. The medical profession is a big lobby with a fat pocketbook. It's up to a bunch of little folks like me and you to oppose those fat cats with bucks--but there are more of us than there are of them. And if you really want to do something to create change in the law, if you REALLY want to stop the monied interests from purchasing your rights, then help us change this law.

What I'm asking you to do is not difficult; all you have to do is write your state senator and/or your state representative, and tell them you want this law changed. You can also write to members of the House Public Health Committee and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Tell them to support proposals to amend the law so that hospitals are required to treat patients until they are transferred to another facility. Tell them to oppose any proposals that continue the allowance of hospitals to withdraw life support against the will of patients or their guardians.

I've created a website to make it easy for people to contact their legislators about this. Go to http://www.texaspatientrights.org On the top right of every page, you'll find links to the House and Senate directories. These directories include tools to help you determine who your own legislators are. (Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Senate directory) Finally on www.texaspatientrights.org site, you can click the menu link for "legislative committee" to find contact information for health committee members. You can call your legislators, write to them snail mail, or go to their websites via the legislature directories to email them.

Another very important thing you can do is to let people know about this law. If ever you had a hankering to forward an email, please forward this one! One of the most dangerous things about this law is that most citizens of Texas are unaware of it. How can people change a law if they don't even know about it? Tell everyone you know about this law, ask them to take action in notifying others and writing their legislators. Tell people in your church group, your reading group, your line dancing group, your gun club, your rv club; tell your co-workers, tell your family members, tell EVERYONE you know about this law. Write to the editor of your local paper, post about this online, call Oprah, link the texaspatientrights.org website to your website. Do what you can today because tomorrow it might be someone you love or even you who is euthanized in a Texas hospital.

Finally, do your best to protect your own family. If you or someone you love is going into the hospital, ask the doctor where they stand on this issue. Get them to put their stance in writing if you can. Consider finding another qualified doctor if the current doctor isn't willing to uphold your values--it's easier to find another doctor before things get critical, than after-- believe me. Ask the hospital if they've ever invoked Section 166.046 of the Advance Directives Act on patients; if they have, you might want to find another hospital.

Please do what you can TODAY to protect innocent Texas patients. Let your outrage do some good. It only takes a few minutes.

Thanks,
Lanore Dixon

[Kerrytravelers]

1. K&R

Everyone needs to see this.

[NanceGreggs]

2. K&R ...

This needs to be seen.

[annabanana]

3. Thank you for the info. . . .kick. . eom

[eallen]

4. BTW, the Texas Futile Care Law was signed by then governor George Bush.

[elehhhhna]

13. Gov GW Bush, Presiding over death and destruction since, well,

since he "sobered up".

[Rosemary2205]

5. Glad you all went this direction.

I got our business involved in this - regarding pressuring Blue Cross when it happened. I'll pass this to the boss to pass on to his many business contacts in Texas. For coordination purposes.

Recommended

Edited because I realized you are in the family, not an outside poster. Sorry.

[Th1onein]

10. Your company's involvement with Blue Cross.....

might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in my sister's case. Blue Cross Blue Shield was her insurer and we think that they were putting pressure on the hospital to pull the plug, because she was costing them so much money. The doctor's said, of course, that wasn't the case, but our lawyers said it was exactly what was happening.

Andrea was finally given a new doctor who had privileges at St. Luke's, but unfortunately, it was too little, too late, by that time and she died a little over a week later. And Andrea was fortunate because her family stood up to the medical establishment. How many are out there that have been quietly killed by these institutions that are supposed to be for HEALING, not death? We will probably never know.

This law must be overturned.

[elehhhhna]

14. Yep. In the last several years , most BCBS state companies

converted from Not for Profit to For-profit status. Wonder why.

[DemReadingDU]

6. Thank you, K&R

[myrna minx]

7. K&R. n/t

:hug:

[SheilaT]

8. When did you get this email?

I seem to recall this was brought up here on DU some time back, and a fast google of "Andrea Clark" shows she died in May of last year.

From what I can tell of this case, it's one of those things where Pro-Life meets real life. It's not a situation of active euthanasia, as pro-lifers have tried to make this out to be, but a case of at what point do we stop active life support?

[Th1onein]

9. I received it TODAY.

And, for your information, my sister was COGNIZANT right up until the end. Is it not "active euthanasia" when the patient is fighting you to live? Is it not really "active euthanasia" when the patient has not lost brain activity? Is it not really "active euthanasia" when the doctors have gotten together to "pull the plug" and the patient WRITES ON A SHEET OF PAPER, the words, "I don't want to die. I want to live."? At what point does it become "active euthanasia" to you, my friend, if that ain't active euthanasia? What can YOU tell us of "the case" that we, the family, who were at her bedside, and speaking to her, were not aware of?

No need to google "Andrea Clark," friend. I'm Andrea Clark's sister. Lanore Dixon is her sister, and my sister, as well. WE are ANDREA'S SISTERS. We know what went on; we were THERE. We lived it.

Don't try to tell us what pro-lifers "tried to make this out to be." They didn't try to make it out to be ANYTHING it wasn't. I'm a lifelong Democrat AND a leftist, but the pro-lifers were there for us at a time when we needed them. St. Luke's tried to kill a cognizant human being that did NOT want to be killed. THAT'S "active euthanasia." In fact, that's murder.

[SheilaT]

11. What I'm puzzled by is the posting

which makes it sound as if Ms. Clark is still alive, rather than having passed away last year.

[Rosemary2205]

12. A misread?

I know the Monkeyman saga has us all on edge but this is real. I encourage you to read the OP again and notice that Andrea is always referred to in the past tense. I believe you just misunderstood. Out of necessity, all the lurid details about Andrea's case are not spelled out, however, if you look at the response to my other post above you'll see more information.

[John Gauger]

15. I think what he or she means is

that they are not using a chemical. Euthanasia is when a chemical is used to induce death in a patient or subject. It is illegal in this country (remember Dr. Kevorkian, who only helped people who actually wanted to end their lives. The patients made the decisions, not cost-benefit committees advised by insurance firms.) You can, however, legally neglect someone to death in a hospital, as you found out firsthand. Since they couldn't poison her, they had to let her die by neglect. I guess that would be like 'passive' euthanasia. The chemical process is supposed to be painless, but there really isn't any way to tell; I find it doubtful, considering what we have found from Texas and Florida capital offenders. I don't know why there should be a law against assisted suicide but not financially motivated negligent homicide. But if the pro-lifers, who are responsible for the anti-chemical-euthanasia laws, fought for you, I say good on them. It's sure as hell more than I did for your sister. I didn't help any, so I would be hesitant to speak of others' motives. I remember hearing this story last year. I'm sorry to hear that it turned the way it did. There's not a whole lot I can do to help you; I'm in PA. If I hear anything about it occurring in this state I'll definitely write my assembly members. I'll ask about it; my mother works in a hospital in Harrisburg, the capital, and my friend is a nursing student who takes classes at the York Hospital. I guess I'll ask them if they've heard anything like this. My mother's hospital is for-profit, but I don't know about the one near the school, so I don't know if it would do something like that. I hope you get that law changed.

Love and Peace.

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. No, it is not! It is murder, plain and simple, although unlike most

murders, it is not spur-of-the-moment act of violence through a towering rage and loss of control, but satanically calculated murder.

[stillcool]

17. wow....I remember you...

and your sister and some of your hell. I didn't connect the user name. I'm not from Texas, but just wanted to say :kick: & R!