Bush signed Texas law favoring spouses | ajc.com

Bush signed Texas law favoring spouses | ajc.com:

"WASHINGTON — President Bush, now championing the right of Terri Schiavo's parents to decide whether her feeding tube should be reinserted, signed a Texas law in 1999 giving spouses top priority in making such decisions.
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But in siding with Schiavo's parents over her husband, who waged a 15-year legal battle to have her feeding tube removed, Bush ran counter to a measure he signed into law in Texas in 1999.

The state law says that in cases in which a patient has not signed a directive about life-prolonging care, the patient's spouse makes the call unless there is a court-appointed guardian. An adult patient's parents are listed third, behind 'reasonably available adult children' and ahead of the 'the patient's nearest living relative.'

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said the Texas law also allows caregivers to withhold treatment 'at the point that futility has been reached and there is no longer any hope of survival or of additional health care measures being used to sustain life.' She said Bush's signing of the Texas law 'seems to conflict with his position today.'"