TCC has worked on the Texas Advance Directives Act for more than two years with our partners in Catholic Healthcare and respects all of those of who have worked to address these issues. We want to be clear with members of the Texas Legislature and our Catholic lay faithful that the Bishops of Texas oppose all efforts to amend any legislation to allow for treatment pending transfer. As Catholics, rather than seek a definitive answer as to whether patients, families or doctors have absolute autonomy, we encourage everyone intimately involved to make the decisions that are best for each patient. We seek a dignified life and a dignified death that recognizes the end of one's human existence and respects the person's spiritual nature. Death occurs without human intervention. A dignified death is one that recognizes that man comes from God at the beginning of his existence and returns to him at the end. The individual dies, as far as possible, in possession of his or her faculties surrounded by loved ones, comforted and aided by the spiritual and sacramental gifts of faith. Death is only dignified when it respects the essential dignity of the person as someone created by God.

Advance Directives; CSSB 439