Marlise Munoz is remaining on life support while her husband and family protest and battle in court. Munoz is pregnant but has been medically diagnosed as brain dead. Questions have quickly risen about whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of the fetus. Anti-abortion groups argue that the fetus deserves a chance to be born.
Munoz’s husband, Erick, was clear with his wife before finding her unconscious on November 26, that if he ever found her in this kind of condition, he was to pull life support. John Peter Smith Hospital claims they are bound by state law that prohibits the withdrawal of treatment from a pregnant patient. Munoz’s attorneys issued a statement Wednesday describing the condition of the fetus which is believed to be about 22 weeks’ gestation. Medical records also show that the fetus is distinctly abnormal and the gender cannot be determined. The fetus also has fluid building up inside the skull and could possibly have a heart condition. The attorney’s stated that these medical abnormalities are a result of the fetus being “deprived of oxygen for an indeterminate amount of time” and because it is “gestating within a dead and deteriorating body.”
A hearing in the case is scheduled to take place Friday, when Munoz plans on asking the judge to order the hospital to pull life support and return the body to the family.
