By: ABC Staff
But some medical and life advocacy groups support the law.
“There is a measure of review. The family can be present. The family was present in this case. The family got a chance to speak,” said Joe Pojman with the Texas Alliance for Life.
Doctors and nurses at the hospital say even feeding and bathing Tinslee can cause her body to have a medical crisis.
By: Jamie Stengle
But supporters of the 20-year-old law include Texas Alliance for Life, a group that opposes abortion except to save the mother’s life and also opposes euthanasia. Joe Pojman, the group’s executive director, has said the law balances the family’s autonomy with doctors’ rights not to give interventions that cause harm or suffering.
Usually, according to experts, doctors and families can come to an agreement without the issue going to a committee.
Though Texas is one of only a handful of states with such a law, experts said the same process basically occurs in other states that don’t have specific legislation. In those states, the hospital would just assess the legal risk of getting sued before proceeding.
By: BY KALEY JOHNSON AND TESSA WEINBERG
And while groups like Texas Right to Life, which has provided legal assistance to Tinslee’s family, argue the law should be done away with from a moral perspective, other anti-abortion groups, like Texas Alliance for Life, support the law. In a statement on Tinslee’s case, the group said the act was “good public policy and constitutional.”
By: JAMIE STENGLE
Lawmakers, attorneys, doctors, and anti-abortion groups were among those participating in a task force that helped craft the law. Among those was Texas Alliance for Life, a group that opposes abortion except to save the mother’s life and also opposes euthanasia.
Joe Pojman, the group’s executive director, says they “strongly support” the law’s dispute resolution process. He says the law balances the family’s autonomy with doctors’ rights not to give interventions that cause harm or suffering.
By: Renzo Downey
Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, one of the organizations in a coalition that opposed SB 2089 — which also includes the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops — said the coalition was not consulted on the change to 45 days and had not yet met to discuss that alteration. However, the Alliance for Life appreciated Lucio’s amendment, he said.
By: Audrey Morton
Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Dr. Joe Pojman said the goal of the current law is to encourage communication between the doctor and patient or patient’s family when the patient is terminally ill.
“We do not believe that the law should require that a doctor be forced to provide an intervention that will actually harm the patient,” said Pojman.
He said families could demand a medical intervention could actually harm the patient.
“In these very rare cases, the goal of this law is to get doctors and patients and their families talking together. And, most of the time, that works very well,” said Pojman.