Pregnant And Forced To Stay On Life Support

Pregnant, and Forced to Stay on Life Support A Texas woman is now brain-dead after collapsing on her kitchen floor in November from what appeared to be a blood clot in her lungs. She was found by her husband and taking to the John Peter Smith Hospital. Marlise Munoz was also 14 weeks pregnant. At the hospital she was in Intensive care unit where she remains connected to live-support. Her husband and parents planed to take her off life support. In November as they plan to say there goodbyes and to fulfill her wish not to be left on life support, her family finds out that the doctor is not willing to comply with their instructions. She was 14 weeks pregnant and the state of Texas prohibit, with varying degrees of strictness, medical officials from cutting off life support to a pregnant patient. Mrs. munoz is till on life support. There is a medical team that monitors the heart beat of her fetus, that is now at 20 weeks. The Muñoz case has become a strange collision of law, medicine, the ethics of end-of-life care and the issues around abortion. Her mother states “ its not a matter of pro-choice and pro-life. It’s a matter of our daughters wishes not being honored by the state of Texas”. “The hospital maintains its law, although several experts in medical ethics said they believed the hospital was misinterpreting it. A crucial issue is whether the law applies to pregnant patients who are brain-dead as opposed to those in a coma or a vegetative state. The law, first passed by the Texas Legislature in 1989 and amended in 1999, states that a person may not withdraw or withhold “life-sustaining treatment” from a pregnant patient.” The hospital has made it clear that Mrs.Machado is brain-dead. They still declined that she is taking of life-support. As of January 26, 2014 the hospital where Mrs.Machado was in ICU, have received orders from a judge to take her off all machines. This action now ended her family’s legal fight and challenges a