Tirhas Habtegiris

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Tirhas Habtegiris (1978 – December 14, 2005), a legal female immigrant into the United States from Eritrea, was removed from a respirator under Texas law against the wishes of her family, Habtegiris had cancer that had spread to her lungs and she was diagnosed as terminally ill.

There is debate over whether Habtegiris was conscious and responsive when the respirator was removed. Her family claims that she was conscious and responsive and suffocated over the course of 16 minutes. The hospital claims that she had been unconscious and unresponsive since shortly after her admission, due to the large doses of intravenous narcotics necessary to manage her pain.

Under the Texas Advance Directives Act (or Futile Care Law), a terminally ill patient can be removed, at the hospital's discretion, from life-sustaining treatment that "the attending physician has decided and the review process has affirmed is inappropriate treatment." (See §166.046 of the Texas Health and Safety Code.) In particular, it does not allow or even address withdrawing treatment simply because of inability to pay, contrary to erroneous media reports (some of which are referenced below). The hospital claimed that financial considerations had nothing to do with the decision.

A statement from the hospital indicates they offered to hire an immigration attorney to bring the woman's mother to her bedside so that she could die in her mother's arms, but the family said that the process in their home country would take too long.

References

Baylor Health Care System Media Statement on the Facts regarding Tirhas Habtegiris
Baylor Health Tirhas Habtegiris Case: Medical History
Texas Health & Safety Code §166.046
St. James, Janet (2005-12-14). "Woman's death highlights health insurance crisis". WFAA-TV. Archived from the original on 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2006-01-22.
Fink, Jack (2005-12-14). "Family debates hospital's action in woman's death". CBS 11 News. Archived from the original on 2006-02-10. Retrieved 2006-01-22.
Landsburg, Steven E. (2006-01-03). "Do the poor deserve life support?". Slate. Retrieved 2006-01-22.

v t e Medical ethics cases

Assisted suicide	Betty and George Coumbias Dax Cowart Giovanni Nuvoli Sue Rodriguez Ramón Sampedro Piergiorgio Welby

Euthanasia	Andrew Bedner Tony Bland Carol Carr Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health Baby Doe Law Eluana Englaro June Hartley Jack Kevorkian Robert Latimer Karen Ann Quinlan Terri Schiavo case Gloria Taylor

Physician's opinion against patient wishes	Betancourt v. Trinitas Mordechai Dov Brody Lantz v. Coleman Tirhas Habtegiris Rom Houben Sun Hudson case Baby K Jesse Koochin Joseph Maraachli case Spiro Nikolouzos case Aruna Shanbaug case David Vetter Gillick competence Tony Nicklinson

Research	Albert Stevens Albert Kligman's dermatology experiments Deep sleep therapy Doctors' Trial Henrietta Lacks Human radiation experiments Jesse Gelsinger Joseph Gilbert Hamilton Moore v. Regents of the University of California Surgery to try to improve mental health Medical Experimentation on Black Americans Milgram experiment Radioactive iodine experiments Plutonium injections Tuskegee syphilis experiment Willowbrook State School Greenberg v. Miami Children's Hospital Research Institute

Persondata
Name	Habtegiris, Tirhas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1978
Place of birth
Date of death	2005-12-14
Place of death

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Tirhas Habtegiris

See also

References