To the controversy originated a few weeks ago by the preliminary bill of abortion law in Spain, in which many have ended up discussing when a baby is a human being and when it is not, today a new case is added in which the debate is served, because it is a strange situation in which the interests of women, their family, baby and hospital professionals are confronted.
In the United States, in Texas, a woman with brain death remains connected to the devices that keep her "alive" because she is pregnant. So far we can think that it is correct or that it is not. The fact is that the woman had already decided what should happen if this situation came, not to force life, and her family thinks the same, not agreeing with the procedure of the hospital, which insists on saving the baby's life because it That says the law.
I speak of Marlise Muñoz, a woman who, along with her husband, had decided long ago what to do in case one of the two suffered an accident or was seriously ill, signing a living will in which they related what they wanted to happen in those cases or to whom they delegated the decision.
On November 26, Erick, her husband, He found her unconscious in the kitchen. She was taken to the hospital and there they reported the fatal outcome to the family: Marlise was in a situation of brain death. However, being pregnant, they decided to keep her body alive artificially, although that is not what she had decided in her living will.
Then the family told the hospital that their desire was to disconnect the woman, that they preferred that the final outcome not be extended any longer and received what was least expected, the refusal of the John Peter Smith hospital, because she was pregnant. Right now the baby has been gesturing for 20 weeks, so I estimate that by then it should be about 14 weeks.
Law issue
Both Marlise's family, her parents, and Erick, her husband, requested the suspension of care. However, it is a legal issue, since the law in Texas requires, since 1999, to maintain the vital functions of a woman while the pregnancy is considered viable. Now, it seems, according to experts in legislation and bioethics, the law also recognizes that Pregnancy cannot be the only reason to keep a woman alive.
So the hospital is backed by the law, but the family insists on their desire to give Marlise a quiet rest. Let us not forget that all states recognize that a person's brain death makes him legally dead, and it makes no sense to give care to a lifeless person.
The living will
They also rely on the living will made by the woman, requesting that in case of serious illness she be allowed to die, but again the law passes in front of this document, because in case of pregnancy the law prevails and not the desire of the person.
Who should decide on it?
The case obviously opens a new moral dilemma in which it is very likely that many people would decide different things. To live the death of your wife, a young person and with all life ahead must be something hard, terrible, and see her every day in the hospital, live without being, without being able to say goodbye to her, who is no longer there, must be a I miss the time, and somehow rummage through a wound that will hardly close in this way.
However, the reason is the gestation of a baby that could be born healthy, fruit of the love he felt for her. A brother for the other child that the couple had together, a year and a half, that would be a small miracle arrived long after his death.
They are two of the arguments to put on the scale, but then there are many more, of course: the explicit desire of the mother, signed before everything happened, the desire of the woman's family and finally the desire of Erick, her partner . What I mean by this? That I believe that the decision should not be taken by the law or the hospital. The decision should be of the couple and the family, who have already spoken.
What I or you would do better not to talk, or at least I do not ask you, first because I feel chills just thinking that something like this can happen to me and secondly because in order to decide you have to live it, and I hope nobody has to live it.
