This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express-News on June 8, 2018. Dear Mr. Premack: I am agent under my father’s Medical Power of Attorney. He has Alzheimer’s and now, ironically, has terminal cancer. The doctors have been cooperative with implementing DNR orders while he has been in the hospital, but things get inconsistent about life support when he’s moved back to the memory care facility. Is there a way for me to use the Medical Power of Attorney to get all of t

This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express News on July 31, 2017. Senate Bill 11 was introduced on July 12, 2017 and passed by the Texas Senate on July 26. It has been sent to the Texas House for consideration. There is no existing statutory law relating specifically to DNR orders for inpatients at hospitals; rather, the current law deals only with Out-of-Hospital DNR orders for individuals who are not receiving inpatient care (that is, they are at home, at a docto

This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express News on October 12, 2015. Dear Mr. Premack: My father and I have been discussing his illness. He has been diagnosed with cancer; the progress will be slow but unstoppable. He is 90, does not want to be put on artificial life support, and wishes that he could (when the time gets nearer) end his own life in a physician assisted suicide. It is possible and legal in Texas for his wishes to be carried out? – RS In America, an a