Marlise Munoz is brain dead but the hospital refuses to remove life support despite the wishes of her family. |
In normal circumstances, this is a tragic but
straightforward situation. In Marlise Munoz’s case, things became a lot more
complicated than she and her husband had foreseen. Marlise was 14-weeks
pregnant when her husband discovered her unconscious on the floor and rushed
her to the hospital. By the time she got there, doctors said she was, for all
purposes, brain dead.
Marlise’s family unanimously agrees that she would have
wanted to be taken off life support, but she has remained hooked up to machines
for seven weeks now. The hospital has refused to remove life support because,
according to Texas’s Advance Directives Act, “A person may not withdraw or
withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant
patient."
But brain death is defined as “irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem” and is considered
legal death. Under that definition, Munoz’s husband, Erick, her parents, and
many medical and legal advisors say that she should no longer be considered a
patient and should be allowed to complete natural death. Marlise’s family is
now suing the hospital for refusing to allow her natural death.
A recent MSNBC segment of News Nation with Tamron Hall
brought in legal analyst
Kendall Coffey to discuss the case. After discussing the ambiguity of the
Advance Directives Act, which many believe has been completely misinterpreted
in this case, Coffey
questions the decision of the hospital not to respect the wishes of the
Munoz family:
If Marlise “were healthy and alive, there’s no doubt she
would have the constitutional right to terminate the pregnancy in these
circumstances,” he says. “Given the fact that she lacks cognitive power, but
there are individuals, loving individuals, who are apparently unanimous… why
wouldn’t they have the same constitutional right expressing her will to say
this pregnancy should be terminated?”
While the hospital and others are pushing for the pregnancy
to continue, there are risks with that, too. The Munoz family believes that
Marlise fell unconscious due to a pulmonary embolism, or a blockage of the main
artery of the lung—though a full autopsy cannot be completed while she is still
on life support. If that is the case, the baby would have suffered from the
same lack of oxygen and could very well be brain dead as well.
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