I think we should start treating Texas like I treat my sister’s dog.
Clear, direct, and with treats. I know you’ve missed me and all my awesomeness.
I’m sure you’ve pulled through.
Texas, sometimes I think Texas is everything that is wrong with the US,
but then I remember if gave us Jeff…and Jeff is fabulous. We all know about how
Texas state legislatures have no respect or regard for women with their
anti-choice, faux-pro-life policies, which are at the expense of women,
particularly, low-income women of color, but Texas has officially disregarded
the wishes of a woman and her family after her death by forcing her body to be
an incubator for a fetus.
Jezebel had a post written by Doug
Berry on this situation. According to The
Dallas Morning News, Jacquielyn Floyd says Marlise Munoz died tragically by
pulmonary embolism the week after Thanksgiving. Her death is a tragedy, but
Texas law automatically invalidates Munoz’s legal prerogatives about her
end-of-life preferences if she is pregnant. Take a minute, and ask yourself,
what the fuck does that mean? Well, it means if you’re a woman in Texas who
dies, but are pregnant, the state will revive your body so you can incubate a
fetus even after being without oxygen for a prolonged period of time. Anyone see the Blade movies? Don’t judge. There is one scene in one of the movies
where people are kept alive in a sort of blood farm…that is the image that is
invoked when I read this post. No brain activity, no hope of a full life, just
a body being consumed for the purposes of another without any regard for the
original life.
Munoz
was found by her husband, Erick, without a pulse and not breathing. He
performed CPR and called an ambulance. Marlise was taken to John Peter Smith
Hospital in Fort Worth. Marlise’s body was subjected to electric shocks and
drugs until her heart started, and it continued to beat because with mechanical
support. She is brain dead and was without air for too long to recover. When
Marllise’s family was ready to disconnect Marlise from life support, they were
told the hospital could not legally do that because at 14 weeks, the doctors
could detect a fetal heartbeat. As a result, Marlise’s body is being maintained
as an unwilling incubator.
Ok,
so this sucks, but really how does this happen? Well Texas values a possible non-viable fetus (remember it was without oxygen too) over the wishes of Marlise
and her family. So Erick and their family had to continue their grief through
the holidays, and they were subject to the anti-choice zealots who believe and
I quote “accused Erick Munoz of simply wanting to ‘pull the plug’ so he could ‘get
rid’ of his wife and baby.”
But
I have a few logistical questions:
Who
is paying for this unnecessary medical care?
Who
is responsible for the child, who should have died with its mother?
See
where I’m going with this? Someone has to pay for this, and I can’t imagine
that Erick and his family would be forced to pay to keep his wife needlessly
alive. But will Erick have to care for a child that should have died with his
wife? Or will this child become a ward of the state?
