Marlise Law will not Bar Doctors from ending Life Support for Pregnant Patients

A Texas mother is making efforts to prevent other families from going through the same pain she had to more than a year ago. Lynne Machado’s daughter Marlise Munoz was not removed from life support for more than two months after she was declared brain dead. Munoz was 14 week pregnant when she was hooked up to life support at a Fort Worth hospital after being declared brain dead.

“It was a very difficult journey to see our daughter on artificial support for 62 days when we knew she was dead. The hospital had confirmed that”, said Lynne Machado.

Machado stepped ahead to support introduction of ‘Marlise’s law’ at the Texas legislature. The bill intends removal of language from the state’s health code that forces doctors to not end artificial support for a pregnant patient.

The case of Munoz was traumatic for her family and their story attracted wide public attention, and many politicians were also moved by the tragedy. The bill is inspired from the Marlise Muñoz tragedy and it has now entered the Texas House for approval.

The bill, if passed, would require a developing fetus legal representation in cases where family is not willing to keep a loved one artificially alive until the developing baby is viable.

Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, filed H.B. 3183, also called ‘Marlise’s Law’, on Wednesday. The bill will annul the pregnancy exclusion in the Texas Health and Safety Code to not prevent doctors from removing life-sustaining treatment from a terminally ill or brain-dead patient who has an advance directive and is pregnant.

The law should act as a reflection of what a woman considers when she plans the treatment she wishes to receive, or not receive, when her condition deprives her of expressing herself, said Naishtat.