A Texas judge ordered a Fort Worth hospital to take a pregnant woman, Marlise Munoz, off life support on Friday. This order may well have ended an emotionally and legally wrenching fight had between the John Peter Smith Hospital and Erick Munoz and according family members.
Erik Munoz contended long ago that hospital officials had told him that his wife was "for all purposes brain dead" and that the fetus might have been deprived of oxygen. However, the hospital kept the woman on respirators and ventilators in efforts to obey a Texas law that says "you cannot withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for a pregnant patient," according to a spokesman of the hospital.
Eventually, the hospital and the Munoz family agreed that Marlise Munoz, 33 years old, had "met the clinical criteria for brain death since November 28," and that "the fetus gestating inside Mrs. Munoz is not viable."
In Mr. Munoz's lawsuit, he claimed that efforts to preserve the life of Mrs. Munoz had been "nothing more than the cruel and obscene mutilation of a deceased body against the [verbally] expressed will of the deceased and her family."
Finally.
I cannot imagine what an emotional tribulation this has been for the Munoz family. Death is death, no matter how it is dressed up or avoided, and in this case, death was ignored for far too long. The judge made the right choice.
It's been said that the law was in place due to efforts of the pro-life movement. I regard this as a rumor, but if it's so, I must acknowledge it as a foolish blunder, made in defiance of the natural process of death. It was clear, in the case of Mrs. Munoz, that the fetus was not viable.
I am glad that the Munoz family can now give their loved one the burial and respect they had wished to.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/health/pregnant-brain-dead-woman-texas/index.html?hpt=us_c1
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