Texas law may change to grant families some of doctors' authority Houston Chronicle, May 6, 2007 HOUSTON -- On June 10, 2006, aging and ailing, Edith Pereira was taken by ambulance from St. Dominic nursing home to Memorial Hermann Hospital. It might have been nothing that serious. But Memorial Hermann doctors found no infection. Instead, they said, her altered state - high blood sugar that made her too drowsy and combative to be fed - was an indication her dementia was now end-stage, that her frail body was shutting down. They gave her morphine to ease any pain and recommended hospice care. For most of history, there was no dispute about medical futility - doctors could do little to stave off death. But with the invention, then widespread use of CPR, respirators, dialysis and other technologies in the latter half of the 20th century, they could artificially prolong the lives of many dying patients. Doctors took full advantage of the technology. For a time, if there was a conflict over a patient's end-stage care, it usually involved "right-to-die" cases: families urging doctors to let their loved ones die and doctors doing everything in their power to keep them alive. "There was a real 'rescue fantasy,' the idea that everything possible be done," said Dr. William Winslade, a bioethicist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "I had doctors in those days say to me, 'I went to medical school to save lives, not give up on them."