§ 71.003.Application; Certain Conduct Excepted

Three subsections, and the first states the principle that defines a wrongful death claim.

The subchapter applies only if the individual injured would have been entitled to bring an action for the injury if the individual had lived or had been born alive.

The claim is derivative. The survivors have no better position than the decedent would have had, so any defence that would have defeated the decedent's own suit — consent, limitations, a release, a contractual bar — defeats theirs.

Subsection (b) reaches beyond Texas: the subchapter applies whether the injury occurs inside or outside this state. The out-of-state provisions later in the chapter then supply the conditions for enforcing such an action here.

Subsection (c) carves out four categories of claim for the death of an unborn child. No action lies against: the mother; a physician or licensed provider where the death is the intended result of a lawful medical procedure performed with the requisite consent; a person who dispenses or administers a drug in accordance with law, where the death results from it; or a licensed physician or provider where the death directly or indirectly is caused by, associated with, arises out of, or relates to a lawful medical or health care practice or procedure.

The fourth is drawn widely — four connective phrases, any one of which suffices — and between them the exceptions confine the unborn-child claim to third-party conduct such as a collision or an assault.