relating to advance directives and health care treatment decisions
made by or on behalf of patients, including a review of those
directives and decisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 166, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 166.0445 to read as follows:
Sec.166.0445.LIMITATION ON LIABILITY FOR PERFORMING
REQUIRED MEDICAL PROCEDURE. (a) A physician or health care
professional acting under the direction of a physician is not
subject to civil liability for conducting a medical procedure
required under Section 166.046(d-1).
(b)A physician or health care professional acting under the
direction of a physician is not subject to criminal liability for
conducting a medical procedure required under Section 166.046(d-1)
unless:
(1)the physician or health care professional in
conducting the medical procedure acted with a specific intent to
cause the death of the patient and that conduct hastened the
patient's death; and
(2)the hastening of the patient's death is not
attributable to the risks associated with the medical procedure.
(c)A physician or health care professional acting under the
direction of a physician has not engaged in unprofessional conduct
by conducting a medical procedure required under Section
166.046(d-1) unless the physician or health care professional fails
to exercise reasonable medical judgment in conducting the medical
procedure. For purposes of this subsection, the standard of care
that a physician or health care professional must exercise is the
degree of care a physician or health care professional of ordinary
prudence and skill would have exercised under the same or similar
circumstances in the same or a similar community.
SECTION 2. Section 166.046, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and (g) and
adding Subsections (a-1), (a-2), (b-1), (b-2), and (d-1) to read as
follows:
(a) This section applies only to the treatment and care of a
qualified patient who is declared incompetent or otherwise mentally
or physically incapable of communication.
(a-1) If an attending physician refuses to honor a patient's
advance directive or a health care or treatment decision made by or
on behalf of a patient, the physician's refusal shall be reviewed by
an ethics or medical committee. The attending physician may not be
a member of that committee. The patient shall be given
life-sustaining treatment during the review.
(a-2)An ethics or medical committee that reviews a
physician's refusal to honor a patient's advance directive or
health care treatment decision under Subsection (a-1) shall
consider the patient's well-being in conducting the review. If the
review requires the committee to make a determination on whether
life-sustaining treatment requested in a patient's advance
directive or by the person responsible for the patient's health
care decisions is medically inappropriate, the committee shall
consider whether provision of the life-sustaining treatment:
(1)will prolong the natural process of dying or
hasten the patient's death;
(2)will cause harm or undesirable side effects
without a proportionate benefit to the patient;
(3)will exacerbate life-threatening medical problems
that outweigh the treatment benefits;
(4)will result in substantial irremediable physical
pain or other measurable suffering that outweigh the treatment
benefits;
(5)without regard to any judgment on the patient's
quality of life, will be medically ineffective at:
(A)improving the patient's current condition;
or
(B)reducing the patient's current medical
support level;
(6)is consistent with the prevailing standard of
care; or
(7)is contrary to the patient's clearly documented
desires.
Statutes affected: Introduced: Health and Safety Code 166.046, Health and Safety Code 166.052, Health and Safety Code 166.202, Health and Safety Code 166.203, Health and Safety Code 166.039, Health and Safety Code 166.206, Health and Safety Code 166.209, Health and Safety Code 313.004 (Health and Safety Code 313, Health and Safety Code 166)