Marlise Munoz Case Study

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Marlise Munoz
Background
On November 26, 2013, Mrs. Marlise Munoz was found by her husband, Erick Munoz unconscious on the family’s kitchen floor. Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant at the time she was pronounced brain dead by the doctors at John Peter Smith hospital in Texas. Both Mrs. Munoz and her husband Erick Munoz were EMTs and talked about their wishes should they become ill in the future. Both expressed the desire not to be placed on life support. With no formal written advanced directive, Erick Munoz was the surrogate for his wife. Marlise’s family continued to side with the Erick during this most difficult time. The Texas state law states that “A pregnant woman may life support may not be withheld or taken off of life support”. There has been an ongoing debate as to whose autonomy should be respected.
Autonomy
Beauchamp and Childress (2012) defined autonomy as self-ruled, self governance or self determination. John Peter Smith hospital did not respect the advance wishes of Mrs. Munoz. Although Marlise did not have a formal advance directive Mr. Munoz, her surrogate, continued to advocate her wishes . Mrs. Munoz right to autonomy …show more content…

Munoz was considered medically brain dead. She did not have any noted brain or brain stem activity. This meant that Marlise’s rights were terminated. The rights, then, should remain with the fetus, as it was considered alive. The hospital acting as a surrogate as the patient was unable to let his or her needs be known. Although the fetus had “abnormalitieis” didn’t mean that the fetus’s life was not worth living. Whether this is considered murder is far reaching, in my opinion. We should continue to preserve the life of the baby, whether it is handicap or not. We cannot preserve the life of Marlise, because there is no life to preserve. Taking Marlise off the support means that her own body will be unable to maintain life. What happened to the sanctity of the baby’s life is this particular

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