David Christopher Dunn, whom Houston Methodist Hospital tried to deny wanted life-sustaining treatment, has died.
Dunn authorized a constitutional attack on Texas’s odious futile care law. For the sake of future Chris Dunns, I hope that case is not mooted by his death and continues.
Futile care permits hospitals to create their own internal death panels.
It imposes the values of strangers on patients, and ultimately seeks to save money by stopping expensive treatments for very ill patients.
If it is allowed to succeed, the principle will spread like a stain to other areas, such as “marginally beneficial” treatments–already being discussed in bioethics.
But that’s an argument for another day. Our sympathies to Dunn’s family and profound gratitude for those who defended the intrinsic and equal dignity of his life.
Memory eternal!