By Reyna of Bexar H.B. No. 2703
76R4579 MCK-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain written directives for medical treatment.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 672.004, Health and Safety Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 672.004. FORM OF WRITTEN DIRECTIVE. (a) A written
1-7 directive may be in the following form:
1-8 "DIRECTIVE TO PHYSICIANS
1-9 "Directive made this __________ day of __________(month,
1-10 year).
1-11 "I __________, being of sound mind, wilfully and voluntarily
1-12 make known my desire that my life shall not be artificially
1-13 prolonged under the circumstances set forth in this directive.
1-14 "1. If at any time I should have an incurable or
1-15 irreversible condition caused by injury, disease, or illness
1-16 certified to be a terminal condition by two physicians, and if the
1-17 application of life-sustaining procedures would serve only to
1-18 artificially postpone the moment of my death, and if my attending
1-19 physician determines that my death is imminent or will result
1-20 within a relatively short time without the application of
1-21 life-sustaining procedures, I direct that those procedures be
1-22 withheld or withdrawn, and that I be permitted to die naturally.
1-23 "2. If at any time the conditions of the above paragraph are
1-24 met, I do not want my life to be sustained by artificial nutrition
2-1 and hydration.
2-2 "3 [2]. In the absence of my ability to give directions
2-3 regarding the use of those life-sustaining procedures, it is my
2-4 intention that this directive be honored by my family and
2-5 physicians as the final expression of my legal right to refuse
2-6 medical or surgical treatment and accept the consequences from that
2-7 refusal.
2-8 "4 [3]. If I have been diagnosed as pregnant and that
2-9 diagnosis is known to my physician, this directive has no effect
2-10 during my pregnancy.
2-11 "5 [4]. This directive is in effect until it is revoked.
2-12 "6 [5]. I understand the full import of this directive and I
2-13 am emotionally and mentally competent to make this directive.
2-14 "7 [6]. I understand that I may revoke this directive at any
2-15 time.
2-16 "Signed ___
2-17 (City, County, and State of Residence)
2-18 I am not a person designated by the declarant to make a
2-19 treatment decision. I am not related to the declarant by blood or
2-20 marriage. I would not be entitled to any portion of the
2-21 declarant's estate on the declarant's death. I am not the
2-22 attending physician of the declarant or an employee of the
2-23 attending physician. I have no claim against any portion of the
2-24 declarant's estate on the declarant's death. Furthermore, if I am
2-25 an employee of a health care facility in which the declarant is a
2-26 patient, I am not involved in providing direct patient care to the
2-27 declarant and am not an officer, director, partner, or business
3-1 office employee of the health care facility or of any parent
3-2 organization of the health care facility.
3-3 "Witness ___
3-4 "Witness ___"
3-5 (b) In order for the language in Paragraph 2 of the
3-6 directive relating to withholding nutrition and hydration to be
3-7 valid, the declarant must separately acknowledge Paragraph 2.
3-8 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-9 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.