Marlise Munoz and husband Erick with their son, Mateo.photo credit – Marlise Munoz – Facebook
There is a classic life and death tug of war being played out in a Fort Worth hospital and for a husband and son of Marlise Munoz, who is considered brain dead her life’s end is now in the state’s hands. This is due primarily to Texas state law which protects the life of her growing baby. And there lies the dilemma for Marlise’s husband Erick Munoz, who wants the doctors to let her body die without the continued artificial life support keeping her alive.
So should Marlise be let go and with her cause the automatic death of the child she is carrying? According to ABC News, John Peter Smith Hospital officials have their hands tied, because even with the insistence of Marlise’s parents and husband to allow the hospital to pull the plug, a pregnancy nullifies any and all previous directives.
At the time that Marlise suffered a blood clot and collapsed in November, she was 14 weeks pregnant and according to her husband, a paramedic, he did not know just how long she had been unconscious on November 26th. Of course it is certainly understandable that Marlise’s husband would not want his wife to exist in the condition that she is in, as he stated to ABC News.
But there has to be a much larger and much more fundamental issue that has to be dealt with and that is who has the legal responsibility to cause the intentional death of a baby that has a viable chance to be born. Is murder by convenience the reality or should the state protect the growing life of an innocent?
