Sec. 166.044. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR WITHHOLDING OR WITHDRAWING LIFE-SUSTAINING PROCEDURES

(a) A physician or health care facility that causes life-sustaining treatment to be withheld or withdrawn from a qualified patient in accordance with this subchapter is not civilly liable for that action unless the physician or health care facility fails to exercise reasonable care when applying the patient's advance directive.

(b) A health professional, acting under the direction of a physician, who participates in withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from a qualified patient in accordance with this subchapter is not civilly liable for that action unless the health professional fails to exercise reasonable care when applying the patient's advance directive.

(c) A physician, or a health professional acting under the direction of a physician, who participates in withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from a qualified patient in accordance with this subchapter is not criminally liable or guilty of unprofessional conduct as a result of that action unless the physician or health professional fails to exercise reasonable care when applying the patient's advance directive.

(d) The standard of care that a physician, health care facility, or health care professional shall exercise under this section is that degree of care that a physician, health care facility, or health care professional, as applicable, of ordinary prudence and skill would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances in the same or a similar community.

Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 678, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989. Renumbered from Sec. 672.015 and amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 450, Sec. 1.03, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.