Political struggles over pregnancy, the right to terminate it, when life begins, and who gets to make those decisions, are nothing new.? A case unfolding in Texas however, brings those struggles to a new level, one which invites us to ask important questions about the politics of pregnancy, and the value of planning for as good a death as possible.
Marlise Munoz was 33 years old when she died on November 26th.? She had been placed on a ventilator in the course of the emergency response to a probable blood clot in her lungs, and despite being subsequently declared brain dead, has been on that ventilator ever since.? Why?? Because in the course of treatment, it was also discovered that Ms. Munoz was pregnant and in Texas, the law prohibits removing life support from pregnant women.
In effect, Marlise Munoz has been turned into an incubator, and were that in accord with her previously stated wishes, it might be okay.? The tragedy here is that according to her husband, she never wanted to be on life support under any circumstances.? Why can the hospital not respect both her wishes, and the fact that according to Texas law she is dead!? How can they compel “treatment” for a dead body?!
The answer is that when pregnancy gets so thoroughly politicized, by any side, and we accord zero significance to the experience of the pregnant woman, bad things happen.? Good people can and will continue to disagree about when life begins, when it can be terminated, etc.? When hospitals compel treatment for the dead however, we should all be able to agree that something is terribly off.
Neither ethics nor wisdom compel us to respect all individual desires all of the time.? But ethics and wisdom do demand that we make sure that individual desire is never taken completely out of the picture either.
The case of Marlise Munoz reminds us that wherever we land on any of the thorny issues around the beginning and end of human life, we need to be at least as sensitive to the individual in front of us, as the ideologies inside of us.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”