The details: In 1999, as governor of Texas, former U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation giving medical professionals an unprecedented level of autonomous power and creating perhaps the country's only example of a "death panel" in action.
The Advance Directives Act, known also as the Texas Futile Care Law, mostly functions in the way Palin's so-called death panels would: It gives patients the right to dictate the kind of end-of-life care they would like to receive. But the law contains a provision allowing a hospital committee to arbitrate disputes between families and physicians. The boards can end life support for patients if the care is determined to be "futile." Under the current law, the hospital need only inform the patient's family two days before the committee meets to make its decision; the family has 10 days to transfer its loved one to another facility. The Texas legislature is currently considering legislation to extend the time frame.
Advance directives were encouraged by, among others, Palin herself. When still governor of Alaska, she issued a statement on Healthcare Decisions Day encouraging an "increase
the number of Alaska's citizens with advance directives."
Read the actual law: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/76R/billtext/doc/SB01260F.doc
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/09/the_list_real_life_death_panels?page=0,1
Muh.... Who knew? Hypocrites.