I believe that under Texas law you will find that there are a lot of links that make the abortion law go hand in hand with the legal rights of the unborn in Texas. That's why the 20 week application would have been put in there. It is pretty clear that Texas law believes that after 20 weeks, a fetus should not be endangered or terminated unless a mothers health is at risk - in a hospital and under hospital policy. In this case the fetus is now 21 weeks and progressing - that means that it is possible that the hospital could declare the unborn a child with legal rights in as far as being given medical care. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that the child could be declared a ward of the state and care applied through the courts.
In a Jan 3rd article, the father wasn't intent on suing - that came afterward. On an interesting note that people keep wanting this to remain legal (and I think there are legal possibilities where the state could win this one) without the complexities of ethics etc. - nobody can do that. Not even the husband, who by his own words keeps talking to his wife as if she is alive. This would mean that he has seen her as a patient - not a cadaver. On the one hand she's declared dead - but on the other hand she's spoken to as if she's alive. sw
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DALLAS, TX -- Marlise Munoz lies in a North Texas hospital, 19 weeks pregnant but with no chance of seeing her child born.
Her husband, Erick Munoz, says a doctor told him she's brain dead, but John Peter Smith Hospital is refusing to allow him to take her off of life support. The hospital says Texas law prohibits it from following a family directive when a pregnancy is involved, although three experts say the hospital is misreading the law in question.
The case is raising questions about end-of-life care and stands in stark contrast to that of a 13-year-old girl in California whose family is trying to keep her on life support after she was declared brain dead. In that case, the hospital wants to remove the ventilator keeping her heart pumping, saying the girl is legally dead.
In the Texas case, Munoz said he and his wife both worked as paramedics and have seen life and death up close.
"It's our decision that we didn't want to live in that condition," he said in a phone interview Friday from his wife's hospital room.
Munoz found his wife unconscious in the early morning hours of Nov. 26. The family says it doesn't know the exact cause, though a pulmonary embolism is a possibility. Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant at the time.
Erick Munoz described his personal conflict as the father of a 14-month-old boy who wanted another child, but as a medical professional who didn't know if the fetus could survive or how much it had suffered.
Marlise Munoz's case appears to be rare. A 2010 article in the journal BMC Medicine found 30 cases of brain-dead pregnant women over about 30 years. Of 19 reported results, the journal found 12 in which a viable child was born and had post-birth data for two years on only six of them - all of whom developed normally, according to the journal.
John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth is pointing to a provision of the Texas Advance Directives Act that reads: "A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient."
Hospital spokeswoman J.R. Labbe said she isn't permitted to confirm that Marlise Munoz had been declared brain-dead, only that she was pregnant and hospitalized in serious condition.
"We are following the law of the state of Texas," Labbe said. "This is not a difficult decision for us. We are following the law."
But three experts interviewed by The Associated Press, including two who helped draft the law, said a brain-dead patient's case wouldn't be covered by the law.
"This patient is neither terminally nor irreversibly ill," said Dr. Robert Fine, clinical director of the office of clinical ethics and palliative care for Baylor Health Care System. "Under Texas law, this patient is legally dead."
Tom Mayo, a Southern Methodist University law professor, said the hospital would lose absolute immunity from a civil or criminal case if it granted the request, but noted that "most medical decisions" are made without immunity.
While not ruling out legal action, Munoz said Friday that he was more concerned about letting others know about his family's ordeal and possibly pushing for a change to state law to clarify it.
"If anything good is to come of this, we want to inform people," Munoz said.
In the meantime, Munoz said he continues to deal with what he called a "roller coaster of emotions." He balances work and taking care of his son with visits to his wife's hospital bed, where he talks to her about the life they once shared.
"I tell her, 'Hey, our boy is doing OK,'" Munoz said. "'He's healthy and he's growing.'
"It's joyful stuff that I'm letting her know of, but at the same time, I wish she was there to witness it herself."
