From the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
An attorney who helped rewrite the state law being used to keep a pregnant Haltom City woman on life support said lawmakers never discussed it being applied to a brain-dead person.
Thomas Mayo, an associate law professor at Southern Methodist University who helped draft the latest version of the Advanced Directive section of the Texas Health and Safety Code in 1999, said that he does not recall discussing that aspect of the law.
“It never would have occurred to us that anything in the statute applied to anyone who was dead,” Mayo said in an interview. “The statute was meant for making treatment decisions for patients with terminal or irreversible conditions.”
Debate about the law will be at the heart of a court hearing today when the family of Marlise Muñoz asks state District Judge R.H. Wallace to force John Peter Smith Hospital to remove her from life support that would also end the life of the fetus.
Texas law didn’t anticipate Muñoz case, drafters say | Fort Worth | News fro...