Mrs. Munoz Taken Off Life Care Case Study

Angel Zuleta
Midterm Exam Case Analysis
Marlise Munoz is a thirty three year old female, who is fourteen weeks pregnant and brain dead. She was placed on life support for over a month after her husband found her unresponsive on the floor. Mrs. Munoz had previously mentioned to her husband she did not ever want to be placed on life support. The issue here though was In the State of Texas it is illegal to take a women off life support if she is pregnant. In this situation the decision makers consisted of the hospital, the parents of Mrs. Munoz, Mrs Munoz’s husband, and the physician. Mrs. Munoz family did not seek further action so therefore a judge and lawyer were not involved in this decision. The issue in this situation is the hospital wants …show more content…
Munoz family felt so strongly about having Mrs. Munoz taken off life support they should have continued with a legal action against the hospital, which they did not. The badness of this situation is keeping Mrs. Munoz on life support while she is in a PVS, which does her no good especially when it was against her wishes. The family could have fought harder to have Mrs. Munoz taken off life support. However in this situation the good coming out of this situation is a new life. I believe this outweighs the bad of keeping Mrs. Munoz on life support. The nurse and the physician could have explained to the family that Mrs. Munoz is unaware of what’s happening by letting them know she experiences nothing. This may have made them feel more confident in keeping Mrs. Munoz alive for the sake of another life. In this situation by keeping her alive the good coming out of this will be a new life. Even though it is not known the babies condition I believe it is worth saving its life for the sake the baby may be perfectly healthy. It would be worse to end its life and never give it a chance at life. The hospital is enhancing good by keeping Mrs. Munoz alive to save their other patient “the fetus.” The good outweighs the bad because Mrs. Munoz knows and experiences nothing right now so keeping her alive to save a life would be better then ending her life and allowing the other patient “the fetus” to die. I believe in the end when the baby is born the family will feel relieved if the baby is healthy with the joy of knowing Mrs. Munoz lives on again through her new offspring. I believe they may have had added guilt if she was taken off life support and the baby died because they may have developed guilt that the baby could have been saved. I also believe something inside of them told them it was best to keep Mrs. Munoz on life support because they choose not to pursue further action to have Mrs. Munoz life support removed. In the end Mrs. Munoz is brain dead. She is