The case of the Texas woman, 22 weeks pregnant and being kept on life-support machines at a Forth Worth hospital against her husband's wishes, goes before a judge in North Texas on Friday.
Marlise Munoz has been on respirators and ventilators since she was found unconscious in her home in November, when she was 14 weeks pregnant. Her family says it has medical evidence that she's brain-dead.
But John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth has refused to disconnect Munoz from life-support machines, citing the Texas Advance Directives Act concerning end-of-life care. It includes this provision: "A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient."
...Tom Mayo, a medical ethicist and law professor in Dallas, tells NPR he believes the exclusion "doesn't apply because I don't think the act applies to someone who is dead. This is all assuming now that the husband has it right, and that we'll see confirmation of her brain death as a result of the hearing." Mayo says more than 30 other states also have pregnancy exclusion provisions on the books, but this is the first time he's heard of a hospital insisting on treatment over the objection of a family.
Life-Support Battle Over Pregnant Texas Woman Heads To Court : Shots - Health News : NPR
UPDATE: A pregnant, brain-dead woman who has been at the center of a two-month-long ethical and legal battle over whether to remove her from life support was disconnected from the machines on Sunday and her body was released to her husband, lawyers for the family said...
The liberal side wins. Even though I agree with the decision, it is surprising that the state did not follow the law of no abortion. In my opinion abortion is all about the offspring and not the parent, especially of the one whose health is not harmed in the process. The ''severely damaged fetus'' as the attorneys have argued should not vanish the law of no abortion.
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