There are two patients in Texas hospitals who had been placed under a death sentence due to the law that was signed by George W. Bush in 1999. Both patients are alive today because of the public outcry against the death sentence that was pronounced by the ethics committees of their respective hospitals.
Andrea Clark's health is improving since she was transferred to the care of a new doctor. Yenlang Vo, who is a patient at St. David's North Austin Medical Centre has been given an additional 30 days to locate another facility for treatment. Both patients were designated for death via the removal of life sustaining equipment under a law that allows an ethics committee to determine whether or not a patient will live or die.
According to Jerry Ward, the new attending physician would not have known about her case if it had not been for the public outcry and the newspaper publicity.
What is happening in Texas is simply not good enough. The ethics committees in these hospitals are abusing the legislation that was put in place. They are using it to sentence people to death in what appears to be something that is based up pecuniary interests.
For the moment both women remain alive, and hopefully for one of them, Andrea Clark, there is the possibility that her improving health will see her coming off the life support equipment because she is able to breathe etc on her own, and not because of an ethics committee that uses the false criteria of quality of life.
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