Texas Senate Passes Pro-Life SB 303 to Help Families Protect Loved Ones Near the End of Life

email below from Texas Alliance for Life:

Texas Senate Passes Pro-Life SB 303 to Help Families

Protect Loved Ones Near the End of Life

 

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Sen. Robert Nichols Deserve Thanks!

 

April 24, 2013

 

Very good news! Last week the Texas Senate passed SB 303, a strong pro-life bill that will change current law to help families protect their loved ones near the end of life. Supported by pro-life Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and authored by Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), the full Senate passed SB 303 on a decisive 24-6 vote.

Your Texas state senator, Sen. Robert Nichols, voted to support SB 303, a pro-life vote. Please thank Lt. Governor Dewhurst and Sen. Nichols for their support. See sample messages below.

SB 303 is strongly supported by broad coalition of pro-life and provider organizations including Texas Alliance for Life, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission. 

 

Voting for SB 303 were: Campbell, Carona, Davis, Deuell, Duncan, Ellis, Eltife, Estes, Fraser, Garcia, Hinojosa, Huffman, Lucio, Nelson, Nichols, Rodriguez, Schwertner, Seliger, Uresti, Van de Putte, Watson, West, Whitmire, and Zaffirini.

Voting against SB 303 were: Hancock, Hegar, Patrick, Paxton, Taylor, and Williams. Senator Brian Birdwell was absent.

ACTION ALERT: NO on SB 303; the Texas Death Panel Empowerment Act

the following is from Cahnman;s Musings: http://acahnman.blogspot.com/2013/04/action-alert-no-on-sb-33-texas-death.html

Via Texas Eagle Forum re: SB 303 by: Dr. Bob Deuell
"The Texas Medical Association (TMA) is supporting this bad bill: Texas SB 303.

Despite opposition by numerous pro-patient activists, the Texas Senate Health & Human Services Committee passed SB 303 this week. This sets up a showdown on the floor of the Texas Senate, with patient rights in Texas hospitals hanging in the balance.

SB 303 allows hospitals to impose "do not resuscitate" orders and cause their patients' deaths without the consent of patients or their families.

The death panels predicted by Sarah Palin become a reality in this bill, as it authorizes hospitals to set up and control decisions to end patients' lives. As soon as Medicare or Medicaid payments on a patient expire, hospitals can insist on pulling the plug, even when patients could recover. Hospitals will try to coerce physicians to do what the hospitals want, not what is best for the patient.

Whom should Texans thank for this abomination? The Texas Hospital Association and its minion, the Texas Medical Association, insist on passage of this bill, and Senators Jane Nelson, Joan Huffman, and Bob Deuell push the THA and TMA agenda as they do every session.

But there are 31 Senators and this bill can still be blocked and defeated. Hospitals and the TMA have less influence on the floor of the Senate than in the Health Committee. Please contact your Senator and urge him or her to stand up for patients, and join the growing list of opponents to this death panel bill, SB 303.”

Please ask your Senator to VOTE NO on SB 303, the death panel bill."

 Texas Right to Life has more here.

 Contact YOUR Texas Senator here.