Futility on the Border
Hasting Center Report, July-Aug. 2013, at 11, 12
Posted: 24 Mar 2014
Date Written: July-August 2013
Abstract
Miguel is an eighteen-year-old male transferred to Alamo Hospital for anti-venom treatment after a rattlesnake bite while sleeping on railroad tracks. By the time Miguel was transferred from the clinic to Alamo, he was in complete paralysis and at risk for heart failure, requiring ventilator support to breathe. His physicians have determined that he is in a persistent vegetative state and can no longer benefit from hospital treatment. However, no long-term care facility will accept him. Miguel is undocumented and unfunded.
Miguel's father wishes to take his son home, but the cost of transporting him is high, and their home state in Mexico has no ventilator available for him and no consistent supply of electricity to run it. What should the hospital do?
Alamo Hospital is unlikely to face civil or criminal legal liability if it releases Miguel to his father's custody so he can be transported to what may well be a less capable hospital in Mexico.
Keywords: medical care, undocumented people, human rights, public policy, advance directives, Texas Advanced Directives Act
JEL Classification: K19, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation