Fudging the facts on Bush's end of life record - salon.com

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Wed, 23 Mar 2005 22:28:59 -0600

 

Fudging the facts on Bush's end of life record - salon.com

 

 

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005\

/03/22/1999law/index.html

 

 

 

salon.com

WAR ROOM

 

 

Fudging the facts on Bush's end-of-life record

 

The Bush White House values nothing more than consistency. Other

politicians can flip this way and flop that way, but George W. Bush

never errs, never wavers and always stays the course -- or at least

that's what the administration would have you believe.

 

How else can we explain Scott McClellan's deceitful spin on the Texas

futile care statute then-Gov. George W. Bush signed into law in 1999?

As we noted yesterday, the 1999 measure allowed hospitals in Texas to

pull the plug on patients when further care would be futile --

regardless of the desires of the patient or his family. Asked

yesterday whether Bush's signature on that bill conflicted with his

role in the Terri Schiavo case, McClellan snapped back: " That's

absolutely incorrect. The legislation he signed is consistent with his

views. You know, this is a complex case and I don't think such

uninformed accusations offer any constructive ways to address this

matter. "

 

In Bush's defense, the bill he signed in 1999 was friendlier to the

" pro-life " interests than a version he had vetoed previously. In the

1999 iteration of the legislation, doctors seeking to cease futile

life-support measures have to get the approval of a hospital ethics

committee, give the patient's family 10 days of notice and help the

family, if the family so desires, to find another medical facility

that would continue the life support the doctors wished to end.

Presumably, that's what McClellan meant when he said yesterday that

the 1999 law " provided new protections for patients. "

 

But when McClellan said the 1999 legislation " was there to help ensure

that actions were being taken that were in accordance with the wishes

of the patient or the patient's family, " he crossed the line from fact

to fantasy. The law provides some safeguards to patients and their

families, but it ultimately leaves the life-or-death decision in the

hands of the medical community. Wanda Hudson learned about that first

hand last week, when -- over her objections but in compliance with the

1999 law -- doctors removed a breathing tube from her six-month-old

baby. The child died a few minutes later.

 

-- Tim Grieve

 

 

Politicians and Bureaucrats are like diapers. They should both be

changed frequently and for the same reason....anonymous