A human tragedy unfolds in Texas as a collision of patient rights, standard medical practices, and rigidly applied state laws battle over who controls death. According to The New York Times, a Fort Worth Texas hospital has over-ruled a patient’s wishes, and those of her family, refusing to disconnect the brain-dead woman from life support systems because she is 14 weeks pregnant. The hospital maintains it is doing so in compliance with Texas state law. ACLU of Illinois executive director Colleen Connell recently addressed a similar issue noting:
“Health care must be delivered consistent with informed patient choice and medically-directed standards of care – not religious doctrine or directives.”
