Erick Munoz, from Fort Worth Texas, is requesting to have his pregnant wife taken off of life support. This controversial request, he says, is her wishes and that the two of them had always stated they never wanted to be on life support. The married couple are both paramedics, so they are aware of the types of situations in which someone would need life support to stay alive.
Currently Marlise Munoz, who is only 33 years old, is in intensive care at John Peter Smith Hospital and is being kept alive with the assistance of a ventilator. This is apparently not what Marlise has wished to happen, should the situation ever arise. According to her husband Erick, she would be upset that she was placed on a respirator to keep her alive. This all gets further complicated by the fact that Marlise is about 18 weeks pregnant now too. In Texas, doctors are not allowed to withdraw life support from someone who is pregnant, and this case is not exception yet. Once doctors discover that their patient is pregnant they must do nearly everything possible to keep the mother alive. In Marlise’s case, 18 weeks is far from being close to delivering a baby. If the doctors in Forth Worth keep Marlise alive, she will need to be alive for about 18-22 more weeks to carry her baby to full term.
This case is slowly becoming one about human rights, and in this case about whether the adult has more rights than the fetus growing inside her. Texas, being a conservative state, rules that the fetus has a right to life despite the mother’s wishes in this case. Erick Munoz continues to struggle with balancing his life between his essentially dead wife, and taking care of the couple’s remaining son.
Featured image from Facebook user Capital Bay Online.
Erick Munoz Wants Pregnant Wife Off Life Support.
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