Texas Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Transition-Related Care for Minors

By William Melhado and Asad Jung, published 06/28/24

The Texas Supreme Court upheld a recent state law that prohibits doctors from prescribing gender-affirming care to transgender minors after parents and medical professionals challenged the constitutionality of the restriction.

Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, who delivered the opinion of the court, said “fit parents” have a right to raise their children without government interference, but also said that such a right is not absolute.

“When developments in our society raise new and previously unconsidered questions about the appropriate line between parental autonomy on the one hand and the Legislature’s authority to regulate the practice of medicine on the other, our Constitution does not render the Legislature powerless to provide answers,” she wrote.

Not Dead Yet Comment on Proposed Texas Futility Regulations

Dear Chief Counsel: 

Not Dead Yet [headed by Diane Coleman, pictured here] is a national disability rights organization focused on combatting disability- based healthcare discrimination, particularly in the context of advanced or terminal illness. Our comment concerns the regulations to implement the 2023 amendments to the Texas Advance Directives Act governing DNR orders and medical futility conflicts (H.B. 3162) proposed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Section 166.046 of the Texas Health and Safety Code now requires an ethics or medical committee that reviews a physician’s refusal to honor an advance directive or health care or treatment decision to consider the patient’s wellbeing and not make any judgment on the patient’s quality of life.

Can States Constitutionally Ban Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia for Children?

The Texas Supreme Court recently heard arguments concerning the constitutionality of a statute banning gender affirming care for minors. The court considered analogous hypotheticals such as medical aid in dying [previously known as assisted suicide and euthanasia] for children.  

If a parent and physician agreed [that] MAID [medical aid in dying, was] in a child's best interest, could the state ban MAID? 

US Senator Marco Rubio, Colleagues, Question Pfizer's Position on Medically Assisted Suicide

Press Release 02/28/24 

A recent report exposed Pfizer’s financial assistance to Dying with Dignity Canada (DWDC), raising questions about its stance on assisted suicide. DWDC has pushed to expand the eligibility for “medically assisted death” to children as young as 12 years old. Pfizer’s support for DWDC raises concerns that it is complicit in prematurely ending lives. 

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and colleagues sent a letter to Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla regarding Pfizer’s donations to DWDC, and the company’s stance on “medically assisted death.”