Texas law won't allow pregnant woman to be taken off life support

[KingOrfeo]

From the Dallas News: Marlise Munoz, 33, has been completely brain-dead since she suffered a pulmonary embolism after Thanksgiving. She made clear before it happened that she didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means, and her family wants to take her off life support. But she's pregnant, and in Texas.

Electric shocks and drugs started her heart again and it continued beating with mechanical support, but her brain waves were completely flat. She had gone without breathing for too long to ever recover.

But when the heartbroken family was ready to say goodbye, hospital officials said they could not legally disconnect Marlise from life support. At the time she collapsed, she was 14 weeks’ pregnant.

And because doctors could still detect a fetal heartbeat, state law says Marlise Munoz’s body -- against her own and her family’s wishes -- must be maintained as an unwilling incubator.

“That poor fetus had the same lack of oxygen, the same electric shocks, the same chemicals that got her heart going again,” Machado said. “For all we know, it’s in the same condition that Marlise is in.”

Because of the fetus’ poor prognosis, the family has said publicly that they want to allow it to die peacefully, along with its mother.

But after the bewildered family protested the fine print in the law during television interviews shortly before Christmas, the case exploded into an online argument between vehement anti-abortion and abortion-rights factions.

Some of the posted comments were vicious, accusing Erick Munoz -- a grief-stricken father and husband -- of wanting to “pull the plug” and “get rid” of his wife and baby.

Others -- strangers who don’t know these people -- claim Marlise “might wake up” or cling to slim odds that the oxygen-deprived fetus might be miraculously healthy.

“It turned into a right or left argument,” Whetstone said, explaining that Munoz has declined public comment on the case since reading some of the more vitriolic online comments. “That’s not really how the family sees this.”

Hospital authorities have declined all comment, other than to say they have no choice but to follow state law.

According to a 2012 report by the Center for Women Policy Studies, laws governing end-of-life preferences for pregnant women vary by state. Texas is one of 12 that automatically invalidates a woman’s legal prerogative if she “is diagnosed with pregnancy.”

“These are the most restrictive of the pregnancy exclusion statutes, stating that, regardless of the progression of the pregnancy, a woman must remain on life-sustaining treatment until she gives birth,” the report says.

 

[BotanyBoy]

All that republican freedom of choice!!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Libs love to destroy babies, we keep forgetting THAT.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Libs love to destroy babies, we keep forgetting THAT.

Republicans don't understand the definition of baby, fetus, life, liberty, personal freedom of choice, nor sentient being because they are fucking morons who ignore the vast majority of what modern biology, sociology, law and or philosophy have to say on the matter for their religious based political views that only exist in obscure ways through a super majority clinging to their dwindling ability to shove their religion up everyone's ass.

We keep ignoring THAT.

 

[Skiddles2014]

Why does the right fringe always want to meddle with god's will?

 

[warrior queen]

They should take steps to determine the baby's brain-wave activity before making a decision like this.
The baby could also be 'brain-dead'.... and then who would be responsible?

I may be sounding callous... but we have enough damaged children in this world

Before the 'right-to-life' crowd comes in and gives me shit...... I had a child with a heart defect who.passed away after just 8 days. If I could have tested for that back then, I would have aborted. No way did she have to go through six surgeries in 8 days, and no way should we have been forced to deal with the inevitable outcome.
Don't even TRY to tell me that modern medical practices can't check these days

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Dear, no one wants to take away your right to kill a child. I simply believe it isn't your life to take, its the kids life.

 

[warrior queen]

Serious question, related....

Who, in our 'right-to-life' western countries, is going to be left to look after/take care of all these high-dependency people once their primary carers pass away?
Most of us are already facing a crisis-of-care situation.
There are simply not enough facilities (and nowhere NEAR enough financial resources) to provide the level of care required to adequately maintain people of diminished personal responsibility.

It all sounded good back then.... 'everyone is entitled to a life'... but now the reality kicks in.

 

[warrior queen]

Dear, no one wants to take away your right to kill a child. I simply believe it isn't your life to take, its the kids life.

If I had known my baby would be in agonising pain for her short life.....hell YES, I would have aborted.
It was by far the most incredibly sad and awful thing that has EVER happened.

 

[parodyluvr75]

Erick Munoz awoke to his son’s cries in the wee hours of November 26, sure that he’d heard his wife, Marlise, get up to grab 14-month-old Mateo a bottle. When he got up to investigate, he found Marlise collapsed on the floor of their North Texas home, with no heartbeat and not breathing. A paramedic, Erick Munoz tried to resuscitate his wife and called for an ambulance.

In the emergency room, doctors restarted Marlise Munoz’s heart, but couldn’t undo the damage that an hour or more without oxygen wrought on her brain. Today, a machine breathes for Munoz, and her heart hasn’t beat on its own since November 26. Her doctors say there is no brain activity, and her husband and her parents would love to let her go, to properly grieve for the bubbly, enthusiastic 33-year-old woman they loved, but the State of Texas won’t allow it.

- See more at: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2...pport-we-know-shes-gone/#sthash.oQmKxh5b.dpuf

.....

 

[eyer]

Took a few days for King0 to get started...

...but he's definitely off and running now, trailing only forestgimp and vetteboy for the 2014 Literotica Partisan Hack C&P Championship.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Serious question, related....

Who, in our 'right-to-life' western countries, is going to be left to look after/take care of all these high-dependency people once their primary carers pass away?
Most of us are already facing a crisis-of-care situation.
There are simply not enough facilities (and nowhere NEAR enough financial resources) to provide the level of care required to adequately maintain people of diminished personal responsibility.

It all sounded good back then.... 'everyone is entitled to a life'... but now the reality kicks in.

You see, that's the nut of it right there.

Our American "conservatives" want all fetuses to be born, but as soon as the cord is cut the little bastards need to get a job and support themselves.

 

[warrior queen]

You see, that's the nut of it right there.

Our American "conservatives" want all fetuses to be born, but as soon as the cord is cut the little bastards need to get a job and support themselves.

Nobody wants to think about the end result.... a group of highly-dependent people with zero resources to take care of them.
But believe me - the crunch is coming, and soon we will all have to decide what the fuck we're going to do.

 

[FGB]

OK.

I do not see what the argument is.

Then Law is not changed because someone does not like it.

The Hospital is not doing anything wrong.

Perhaps the law needs to be modified but that is another argument.

I don't have a problem living in a State that...if an error is made, it is made in favor of Life or of the unborn.

 

[dolf]

she's dead. it doesn't hurt or harm her, because she's dead. usually i'm pro choice, but she's dead. this isn't any different to organ donation. they're keeping her corpse warm on the off chance that the baby lives... if it were my call i'd make the same call, even if I don't like 'their' motivations.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Libs love to destroy babies, we keep forgetting THAT.

Well, only because they're so delicious!

 

[badbabysitter]

Dear, no one wants to take away your right to kill a child. I simply believe it isn't your life to take, its the kids life.

No, it's the mothers life

she made a decision, she made a choice... and now in death, she is being treated like a piece of meat to validate a moral argument

it is a direct violation of her right to her own body

the mother was deprived of oxygen for an hour.. how well do you think an undeveloped fetus will be doing without oxygen

the state has decided to violate a humans dignity for a piece of meat to be cut open so that another piece of dead meat to be taken from her

it's appaling

then again, it's texas

 

[dolf]

and now in death, she is being treated like a piece of meat to validate a moral argument

but she's dead, so she is a piece of meat.

 

[badbabysitter]

but she's dead, so she is a piece of meat.

but the rights of another piece of meat are stronger then the rights of another piece of meat

 

[Sean Renaud]

but the rights of another piece of meat are stronger then the rights of another piece of meat

While I tend to agree with you I'm not sure why the rights of a piece of meat with little (no official) chance of leading a life are stronger than the rights of a piece of meat with even the slightest chance of life.

Now ultimately I would still say it's not a baby it's a fetus and the choices of the mother and since this mother cannot speak for herself the family should be the final word.

 

[Sunshine]

If the baby is also brain dead, she should be taken off life support.

 

[dolf]

but the rights of another piece of meat are stronger then the rights of another piece of meat

until the baby is proven to be just a piece of meat, yes.

but then i'm pro compulsory organ donation unless opted out officially by the individual. and I really can't see much difference here.

 

[dolf]

If the baby is also brain dead, she should be taken off life support.

that's the big if. how can you prove it when the baby is in the womb?

 

[renard_ruse]

Thank goodness. Do some states allow that? The child can be saved, with no harm to anyone, who on earth could be against that?

 

[Sean Renaud]

until the baby is proven to be just a piece of meat, yes.

but then i'm pro compulsory organ donation unless opted out officially by the individual. and I really can't see much difference here.

If we're going to make it compulsory I see no reason to allow people to opt out.