Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
"I appear today to urge this committee to support SB 917. Coercion has no place in the practice of medicine. As such, the primary purpose of SB 917 is to prevent unilateral forced withdrawals — over the objection of patients and/or families — of WANTED life-extending treatment based on doctors’ beliefs about the quality of the patient’s life. I emphasize 'wanted'.”
Maneuvering through the medical system is a daunting task for anyone. Asking people who may not have the education, life skills, or ability to carry the burden of fighting doctors and the hospital is both unfair and unwise. It breeds distrust in the medical system and leads victims of futile care imposition to conclude — whether rightly or wrongly — that in a time of health care cost cutting, their loved one was crassly deemed too expensive to save.
Again, coercion has no place in medicine. SB 917 promotes comity, which furthers trust and collaboration in life and death decision making.
Fuller comments at: discovery.org/human/2021/04/08/wesley-j-smith-testimony-before-the-texas-senate-health-and-human-services-committee-in-support-of-sb-917
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Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism is to affirm and uphold the intrinsic nature of human dignity, liberty, and equality. In resistance to a growing movement against unique human personhood, we aim to revitalize a commitment to the traditional Western view of human rights and human responsibilities — summed up by the term “human exceptionalism".
For more information about the Center on Human Exceptionalism:
discovery.org/human
Follow Discovery Institute's CHE on Facebook and Twitter:
Twitter: @discoveryche twitter.com/discoveryche
facebook.com/centeronhumanexceptionalism
"I appear today to urge this committee to support SB 917. Coercion has no place in the practice of medicine. As such, the primary purpose of SB 917 is to prevent unilateral forced withdrawals — over the objection of patients and/or families — of WANTED life-extending treatment based on doctors’ beliefs about the quality of the patient’s life. I emphasize 'wanted'.”
Maneuvering through the medical system is a daunting task for anyone. Asking people who may not have the education, life skills, or ability to carry the burden of fighting doctors and the hospital is both unfair and unwise. It breeds distrust in the medical system and leads victims of futile care imposition to conclude — whether rightly or wrongly — that in a time of health care cost cutting, their loved one was crassly deemed too expensive to save.
Again, coercion has no place in medicine. SB 917 promotes comity, which furthers trust and collaboration in life and death decision making.
Fuller comments at: discovery.org/human/2021/04/08/wesley-j-smith-testimony-before-the-texas-senate-health-and-human-services-committee-in-support-of-sb-917
==================================================
Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism is to affirm and uphold the intrinsic nature of human dignity, liberty, and equality. In resistance to a growing movement against unique human personhood, we aim to revitalize a commitment to the traditional Western view of human rights and human responsibilities — summed up by the term “human exceptionalism".
For more information about the Center on Human Exceptionalism:
discovery.org/human
Follow Discovery Institute's CHE on Facebook and Twitter:
Twitter: @discoveryche twitter.com/discoveryche
facebook.com/centeronhumanexceptionalism
