The Texas House has approved a bill that will make changes to the Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA), including the contentious “10-day rule.”
The TADA currently allows a healthcare facility to remove life-sustaining care from a patient within 10 days of giving notice to family or guardians if continuing care of the patient is considered futile and the family is unable to secure an alternative care facility.
Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth) authored House Bill (HB) 3162, which would change the period of notice from 10 days to 25, require transfer attempts to be done before the notice period, change consent requirements for “do not resuscitate” orders, and update hospitals’ ethics committee meeting process.
HB 3162 would make the provision that ethics committees, in determining whether or not to remove treatment, cannot consider “quality of life” and instead must make a judgment based on a set of criteria that includes ...
