You Want To Get Outraged ??? - Try THIS On For Size !!!

[WillyT]

Pregnant woman kept alive against family's wishes in Texas
Linda Carroll NBC News
12/24/13

<snip>

The last time Erick Munoz saw his pregnant wife conscious, she had gotten up before 2 a.m. to give their son a bottle.

When Marlise didn’t return to bed and with the boy still crying, Erick went in search of her. He found her unresponsive on the kitchen floor, her face blue from lack of oxygen. A short time later, doctors declared her brain dead at a Fort Worth hospital.


Erick and Marlise Munoz hold their son Mateo. (Courtesy Kathy Chruscielski/KC Studios)

Marlise Munoz had been clear about her wishes never to be hooked up to life-support machines if she were fatally injured. But when the unthinkable happened to the 33-year-old mom, doctors told her family that they could not respect her wishes. Because she was 14 weeks pregnant, they would have to follow a Texas statute making it illegal to disconnect life support from a pregnant woman.

“The doctors told us that even if a pregnant woman has a DNR or a living will, the law supersedes that,” Munoz’s mom, Lynne Machado, told NBC News. “So any pregnant woman must be kept alive with life support because of the fetus. We had never heard of this and we wanted to get the information out there. No family should have to go through this. It’s been pure hell.”

Although doctors have been sympathetic to the family’s plight, they feel they have no other choice.

“We follow the state law on this," said J.R. Labbe, vice president of communication and community affairs for JPS Health Network. "We cannot withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient."

<snip>

More: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/pregnant-woman-kept-alive-against-familys-wishes-texas-2D11792149

[catbyte]

1. We are nothing but brood mares & chattel to those misogynistic shitheads

I'm not feeling very peaceful and certainly have NO goodwill to those bagger bastards.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. Nor should you ever.

[RC]

2. The State needs to pick up the bill on this.

I bet they bill the husband the full amount though. For 4½ months of needless life support, on a most likely, developmentally challenged baby, assuming it survives that is. Pro Life, my ass.

[Kablooie]

4. Can a mothers body on life support supply the needs of a growing fetus?

I would expect a fetus takes a heck of a lot of resources from the mother, while a body on life support receives just the minimum to survive.

This sound like a recipe for disaster and as you said, if it survives it will become the responsibility of the father to care for the handicapped child for life.

[w8liftinglady]

5. The baby will suffer greatly before he/she is finally born

I've seen this scenario in my MICU too many times. Combine a woman in her second trimester with serious stressors, and you end up with a spontaneous pre-viability birth.They can make 2 coffins,then.

[WillyT]

6. Kick !!!

[pipi_k]

7. Don't know all the

intricacies, but just wondering if the husband could get the wife moved, while on life support, to a state that would allow it to be disconnected.

I mean, is there any law which says that a person doesn't have the right to move a loved one to some other location?

This is just sad and shameful.