even in death, abortion politics never goes away

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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/01/even-in-death-abortion-politics-never-goes-away.html



Two sad cases, in different parts of the country, illustrate an enduring truth of American politics: that abortion never goes away, even if the word itself is not uttered.

On December 9th, a thirteen-year-old girl named Jahi McMath underwent minor surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids, and extra sinus tissues in an effort to alleviate sleep apnea. Something went terribly wrong, and she suffered cardiac arrest. She was declared brain-dead on December 12th. The coroner issued a death certificate, and in light of that physicians at Children’s Hospital & Research Center, in Oakland, sought to have her removed from a ventilator. Her parents, believing there was still hope for her recovery, objected.

A different, equally tragic story unfolded in Texas. On November 26th, Marlise Munoz, a thirty-three-year-old woman who was fourteen weeks pregnant, suffered a seizure in her home in Fort Worth. She was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where doctors informed her husband that “Marlise had lost all activity in her brain stem, and was for all purposes brain dead,” according to a civil-court petition filed last week by her family. Here, in contrast to the McMath case, the hospital refused to remove Munoz from life support. The hospital said it was required to keep her on the ventilator because of the Texas Advance Directives Act, which says, in part, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient.” Marlise remains on the ventilator today, though her family has gone to court to try to allow her to die in peace—or, rather, rest in peace, if she is indeed already brain-dead and there is nothing truly “life-sustaining” about the ventilator. (Gary Greenberg explored the medical aspects of the cases here.)

The stories have a grim symmetry. Both patients are brain-dead. In one, the family wants the machines kept on; in the other, the family wants them turned off. Alas, both family tragedies are bound up in abortion politics, specifically the definition of “life.”