Bush "Hypocrisy"

Many news outlets in the mainstream media have been calling out Bush as a hypocrite for signing a Texas law that allowed doctors to remove life support from patients against the wishes of the family. Unfortunately, the articles seem to be more interested in supporting an agenda than they are in providing facts. In 1997 a bill was in the Texas legislature that would have allowed for sanction against the removal of life saving treatment for patients. An amendment to the bill was defeated that required treatment during the time of a pending transfer. When that bill reached then Governor George Bush's desk, he vetoed it, and said he was vetoing it precisely because it authorized hospitals to deny lifesaving medical treatment, food, and fluids against the will of the patients. The procedures continued without a passage of some bill. A similar bill was introduced in 1999 but the lacked the necessary votes for passage. Bush compromised so that there would be some protective legislation.

Here is the compromise that was reached in the 1999 Texas Life-Support Law:

• The Texas law increase protection for patients being considered for removal of life support by requiring treatment during consideration of weather to remove life support by the hospital ethics committee.
• The time provided for the family to find a new hospital to treat the patient was extended from 72 hours to 10 days.
• The law also allowed for a court to extend this 10 day period in the case of extenuating circumstances.

Although the law did not provide the protection that Bush wanted, he signed the bill because it was an improvement over the existing law. Votes were not there to pass a more protective bill.

It is quite interesting how distorted the facts are when people have an agenda to support.