JPS acknowledges in court documents that Marlise Munoz’s fetus is ‘not viable’

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/fort-worth-hospital-acknowledges-pregnant-woman-is-brain-dead.html/

Update: JPS acknowledges in court documents that Marlise Munoz’s fetus is ‘not viable’
By Diane Jennings
djennings@dallasnews.com
3:12 pm on January 24, 2014

Update at 3:07 p.m.: About two hours before today’s hearing, attorneys representing Erick Munoz and John Peter Smith Hospital filed a joint document in which they agree that “at the time of this hearing, the fetus gestating inside Mrs. Munoz is not viable.” It is the first time the hospital has acknowledged what Erick Munoz has maintained all along.

Original item posted at 9:51 a.m.: John Peter Smith Hospital acknowledged Thursday that Marlise Munoz, the woman being kept on life support against the wishes of her husband, is brain dead. The acknowledgement came in a court filing late Thursday before a hearing to be held Friday afternoon where a judge is being asked to decide whether she should be removed from life support.

“Ms. Munoz met the clinical criteria for brain death on Nov. 28, 2013,” the filing states. But the hospital says she did not leave a written directive and withdrawing life support “would cause the death of the unborn child.”

The Fort Worth hospital again states that its refusal to withdraw support is based on the state law that prohibits the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment for a pregnant woman.