Bush once had different view

As Texas governor, George W. Bush signed a law that allows hospitals to pull the plug on critically-ill patients despite family objections — the kind of court-authorized move the president and fellow Republicans are challenging in the Terri Schiavo case.

Last Tuesday, the Texas law resulted in what some call a US first, when a Houston hospital cut off life support for a deformed 6-month-old baby after his mother lost a court challenge. The baby died almost immediately. Democrats and medical ethicists are citing the 1999 law to charge that Bush’s position in the Schiavo case is hypocritical.

A lawyer who helped draft the Texas law said it would have allowed for the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube if all legal challenges had been exhausted as it would make her husband the primary decision maker. The White House has said Bush’s position is consistent, and that the Texas bill focused on expanding the rights of the critically ill and their families to prevent hospitals from denying life-saving treatment. —Newsday/LAT-WP