Cook County News-Herald - Grand Marais, Minnesota

Cook County News-Herald - Grand Marais, Minnesota:

"Earlier this month a hospital in a Southern state withdrew the feeding tube from one of its patients.
This was done despite the objections of the patient’s mother.
This matter was taken to a local judge where the hospital’s right to withdraw the feeding tube was ultimately upheld by the courts.
The patient was conscious when the feeding tube was pulled and died.
The Southern state where this drama took place was not Florida, but Texas.
The patient was not Terry Schiavo, but a six-month-old boy named Sun Hudson.
The state statute that allowed the hospital to pull this boy’s feeding tube is called the “Texas Futile Care Law.”
It allows hospitals to withdraw all means of life support from a patient where such efforts are deemed to be futile and where the patient does not have any visible financial support to pay for such medical services.
The determinations with regard to “futility of care and financial means of support” are allowed to be made by the hospitals involved — not the patients or the patients’ families. This “Texas Futile Care” legislation was signed into law in 1999 by then Texas governor, George W. Bush."