Emilio Gonzales was born on November 3, 2005 at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas. His mother, Catarina Gonzales, had a C-section at thirty-five-weeks gestation.²² Emilio was moved immediately to the neonatal intensive care unit because of apnea and feeding difficulties. He eventually was found to have extreme loss of vision, bilateral auditory neuropathy, and abnormal seizure activity. He was diagnosed as potentially having Leigh′s syndrome, a rare metabolic condition involving neurological degeneration. In December of 2006 he suffered a setback, perhaps related to a viral illness and was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit of Children′s Hospital of Austin where his condition continued to worsen. His MRI results were consistent with an inherited metabolic diseasecalled Leigh′s syndrome, which affects the nervous system and usually results in death within 2-3 years.  Emilio was at this point ventilator dependent. Consultation with colleagues led to agreement with the diagnosis and poor prognosis. He was now semi-conscious. It was unclear whether he could perceive pain. His treatment consisted of ventilationand feeding via a naso-jejunal tube. His condition was described as irreversible with continuation of brain atrophy.

On February 19, 2007, a meeting of the Neonatal Pediatric Ethics Committeewas held. His attending physician, Dr. Alexandra Wilson believed he was experiencing pain. He could not gag, was experiencing collapse of his lungs, and was havingseizures. MRl’s showed progressive loss of brain tissue. He was now too ill to survive anywhere but in an intensive care setting.

A second meeting of the ethics committee was held on March 9, 2007. At the time, Dr. Wilson and other members of the patient care team believed that Emilio was suffering and that the burdens of his current treatment far outweighed any benefits. Catarina Gonzales continued to request that Emilio be maintained on a ventilator and provided with medical support.

The ethics committee concluded that aggressive care measures including ventilation were "medically inappropriate and recommended "only comfort measures"such as pain control, it concluded that Emilio′s code status be changed to "do not resuscitate."

In 1999 a Texas law was passed permitting attending physicians to forgo life support on patients such as Emilio even against the wishes of the patient′s family ten days after a hospital-based ethics committee endorses the physician′s decision.¹³ Emilio′s iife support was to be terminated after the ten-day period, duringwhich Ms. Gonzales could attempt to find another facility to take her son. She was unable to locate another doctor or hospital, but near the end of the time period.state legislators and the Texas Right to Life organization held a press conference highlighting Emilio′s situation. Shortly later, the hospital granted an additionalten-day period. On April 4, a federal judge refused to grant Catarina Gonzales arestraining order forcing the hospital to continue treatment any longer. The hospital nevertheless did not withdraw the ventilator. Some days later the court did extendthe requirement of treatment until May 8 when a new court hearing was to takeplace, but that hearing was rescheduled for May 30 because several of its witnesses were unavailable. Emilio Gonzales died May 19, 2007, while the parties were awaiting further judicial review.

Later that year Senator Bob Duell introduced into the Texas legislature a bill to extend the waiting period from ten to twenty-one days, but the bill was not acted upon before the legislature adjourned.