When Lawmakers Are Allowed to Embed Their Political Agendas Into Healthcare Laws ...

Marlise Munoz (who is callously being referred to as a 'brain-dead pregnant woman') has finally been allowed to die peacefully. After suffering a tragic event several weeks ago that left her on a ventilator with no signs of brain activity, she was declared to be in a "brain-dead" state by her doctors. Adding to her misfortune was the fact that she was 14 weeks pregnant when she died, which prompted the hospital treating her to deny the family’s request to stop mechanical ventilation as Section 166.049 of the Texas Advance Directives Act states, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient.”

Representatives from Texas’ John Peter Smith Hospital, where Marlise was brought by paramedics after being found unresponsive by her husband, chose to ignore the fact that the fetus had no chance of reaching viability, and an article by NPR summarizes the hospital’s probable reasoning in allowing the family to suffer the consequences of watching their already-deceased loved one being mechanically maintained for several weeks.

“The doctors and the hospital explained that it didn't matter what Marlise or her husband or anyone else wanted — their hands were tied. She would stay on the ventilator until her 14-week-old fetus was delivered or died.

The law protects the hospital from all liability as long as it keeps the pregnant patient on life support. It doesn't actually forbid the hospital to remove support, but the hospital loses its legal immunity if it does. And that seemed to be the guiding light for the lawyers representing John Peter Smith Hospital.”

It took a lawsuit from Marlise's husband for "cruel and unusual mutilation of a corpse" (his beloved wife) for a judge to finally order the hospital to stop treating her as if she was still alive. In court, the hospital also acknowledged that the fetus was not viable and had been deprived of oxygen for one hour on the day Marlise Munoz died. 


When politicians, judges, religious spokespersons, anti-choice advocates, and protestors are allowed to interfere with the actions of medical professionals or dictate the provisions of health care laws, it opens the door for medical mismanagement and the prolonged suffering of sick people and their loved ones. Healthcare decisions must be made by healthcare professionals in order for the medical system to work in favor of patients. 

When lawmakers are allowed to embed their reproductive beliefs and political agendas into legal documents, such as the one hidden in the Texas Advance Directives Act, it allows pregnant women to be treated as non-entities whose sole purpose is to house, incubate, and maintain the fetus within them. It invisibilizes women to a level that makes them inhuman and unworthy of consideration as a person who is separate from their fetus. It also allows a fetus to always and without question take precedence over the woman whose body it is attached to.

My thoughts go out to the Munoz family as they grieve the loss of their loved one and recover from the trauma of fighting in court for the right to let Marlise die in peace.