This is just horrible. The author, Art Caplan, is someone I met at a local symposium and was very impressed with. He is the head of the medical ethics department at the NYU Medical Center where I work. We had a great discussion about a variety of scientific (not just medical ethics) issues. But this particular case is just horrifying.
Here is how I read it...a pregnant woman is, sadly, brain dead. Her husband and her whole family agree that she is dead and should be taken off life support. The 14 week fetus she carried is not viable. Those who know her and care about her or for her all agree that she should be taken off life support and allowed to die with dignity.
The Texas State Legislature, in an example of conservatives gone wild, are forcing the government to intervene in this case to prevent her from being taken off life support.
Texas Republicans are intervening in the private decisions among family and physicians with no medical cause or reason. It is pure ideology over reason, logic, privacy and science. And another case of right wing Republicans doing exactly the WRONG thing for their own ideological and political reasons.
More below.
From NBC News:
Erick Munoz wants his wife now in an intensive care unit to be taken off life-support. The state of Texas does not...
Munoz’ wife Marlise was 14 weeks pregnant when, without any warning last November 26th, her husband found her on the kitchen floor around 2 a.m. unconscious and unresponsive, her face blue from lack of oxygen. Doctors suspect that a blood clot traveled to her lungs and blocked air flow, leaving her unconscious, unresponsive and on life support at at Fort Worth’s John Peter Smith Hospital.
When it comes to medical care for the very ill, Erick and Marlise are experts. Both had worked as paramedics in Texas, and Marlise lost her brother tragically four years ago. Given that loss and what they knew first-hand could happen to those who are resuscitated but very sick they had many serious, in-depth conversations about what to do if the worst happened to them.
“We were all on the same page,” Marlise’s mom, Lynne Machado, told NBC News. “None of us want to be on life support.”
The state of Texas honors those choices, but with one exception. Texas state law Section 166.049 governing “Pregnant Patients” says, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient." That is a very bad, overly broad restriction of individual freedom.
Remember Marlise’s fetus was not viable when she fell seriously ill. And that fetus is not viable today. Still, the Texas law does not make any exceptions regarding viability or survivability...
But legislators ought not have a role at the bedside in this case. Erick Munoz has enough to deal with in trying to manage the loss of his wife and their fetus. He knows his wife’s wishes as well as anyone could. He deserves to have her wishes honored.
Arthur Caplan is the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center.
More on Arthur Caplan:
[Arthur] Caplan is the recipient of many awards and honors including the McGovern Medal of the American Medical Writers Association and the Franklin Award from the City of Philadelphia. He was a person of the Year 2001 from USA Today, one of the fifty most influential people in American health care by Modern Health Care magazine, one of the ten most influential people in America in biotechnology by the National Journal and one of the ten most influential people in the ethics of biotechnology by the editors of Nature Biotechnology. He holds seven honorary degrees from colleges and medical schools. Discover magazine in December, 2008 named him one of the ten most influential people in science.
What the hell is wrong with right wing Republicans??? I mean they say get government off our backs but then they do all they can to force government into our most personal and intimate lives. They ignore scientific, medical and moral considerations and even common decency. Our most personal lives and our very bodies are merely arenas for power plays by greedy and power hungry right wing Republicans.
This is a horrible case of family and doctors knowing full well what needs to be done and everyone ready to do it and move on. And right wing Republicans are preventing the right thing, the moral thing, and are hurting the family while wasting taxpayer money. And for no good reason.
This is why I could never vote for a Republican. Their party spends too much time, effort, and taxpayer money doing this kind of horrible, cruel, and oppressive interference in the lives of American citizens.