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Vigil Memorializes Mom and Baby Removed from Life Support & Warns of Trend to Dehumanize
January 27, 2014
 Ft.
Worth, TX - Operation Rescue's Troy Newman and Cheryl Sullenger joined
a group of about 50 pro-life supporters for a memorial vigil for
Marlise Munoz and her baby outside John Paul Smith Hospital in Ft.
Worth, Texas, on Sunday after news broke that the hospital had withdrawn life support.
Statements
released by the hospital and the Munoz and Machado families indicated
that Marlise Munoz was removed from life support at 11:29 a.m.
and died a short time later. However, there was no mention made of
Baby Munoz, who was 23-weeks gestation at the time of Marlise Munoz'
death yesterday morning.
"We
needed to give that baby a voice and dignity in death that he or she
never had in life," said Newman. "We wanted the world to understand
that this baby's life - whether there were health issues or not - had
value and deserved a chance at life."
Mrs.
Munoz had been on life support at JPS Hospital since November, when
she arrived "still alive" according to a hospital statement in November
after collapsing at her home. Doctors determined that she was "brain
dead" but kept her on life support because she was 14 weeks pregnant in
compliance with Texas law that prevents "life sustaining" treatment
from being removed from pregnant women. A judge disagreed with the
hospital officials' reading of the law and ordered life support
terminated.
Operation
Rescue objected to way the term "brain death" was being applied to
Mrs. Munoz and with the characterization of her as a "dead corpse."
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