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BREAKING: Baby Tinslee Lewis wins emergency relief

Jan 6, 2020

By Texas Right to Life

The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth granted Baby Tinslee Lewis emergency relief, meaning the hospital cannot pull the plug on her while the appeal is pending. The date of the appeal is not yet set. The 2nd Court of Appeals will be the same court to hear Baby Tinslee’s appeal.

This emergency relief comes in response to a decision that denied the 11-month-old a temporary injunction. The 2nd Court of Appeals will be the same court to hear Baby Tinslee’s appeal regarding whether she can have a temporary injunction, which would grant her more time, and the constitutionality of the deadly 10-Day Rule.

Background

Baby Tinslee is an 11-month-old girl with congenital heart disease and is breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. She is sedated but conscious. Cook Children’s Fort Worth Hospital informed Tinslee’s mother, Trinity, on October 31 that they would pull the plug on her daughter against her directive in 10 days, scheduling her to die tomorrow, November 10, under the Texas 10-Day Rule.

The hospital committee cited no physical health reason for their decision to seize Tinslee’s ventilator against her mother’s will but instead cited their own “quality of life” judgments. Baby Tinslee’s mother is in a race against the clock to save her daughter. Texas Right to Life provided a lawyer to defend the patient after the family contacted us for help.

On Friday, November 22, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the District Court of Tarrant County, defending the Right to Life of Tinslee Lewis. The amicus brief also argues the 10-day provision of the Texas Advance Directives Act is unconstitutional and dangerously violates patients’ right to due process.

“One of the core principles provided by the United States Constitution is that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” said Attorney General Paxton. “This unconstitutional statute infringes on patients’ right to life and does not allow patients and their families’ sufficient notice and the opportunity to be heard before physicians override the rights of their patients. Patients must be heard and justly represented when determining their own medical treatment, especially when the decision to end treatment could end their life.”

Categories: Infants
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