US judge orders removal of life support for pregnant woman

Erick Munoz, husband of Marlise Munoz, is escorted out of court by his attorney in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth, Texas:  A judge on Friday ordered a Texas hospital to remove life support for a pregnant, brain-dead woman whose family had argued that she would not want to be kept in that condition.

The judge issued the ruling in the case of Marlise Munoz, who was being kept alive in a hospital in Fort Worth against her family's wishes. The judge gave the hospital until 5 p.m. Monday (2300 GMT) to remove life support.

The case has raised questions about end-of-life care and whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of a fetus. It also has caught the attention of both sides of the abortion debate, with anti-abortion groups arguing Munoz's fetus deserves a chance to be born.

Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when her husband found her unconscious Nov. 26, possibly due to a blood clot.

Erick Munoz says he and his wife are paramedics who were clear about not wanting life support in this type of situation. His attorney argued that keeping the woman alive would set a dangerous precedent for similar cases in the future.

John Peter Smith Hospital maintained it had to protect the life of the unborn child. Hospital officials said they were bound by a state law prohibiting withdrawal of treatment from a pregnant patient. Several experts interviewed by The Associated Press have said the hospital was misapplying the law.

The hospital said in a statement Friday that it "appreciates the potential impact of the consequences of the order on all parties involved" and was deciding whether to appeal.

Earlier this week, Erick Munoz's attorneys said the fetus, now believed to be at about 22 weeks' gestation, is "distinctly abnormal." They attorneys said they based that statement on medical records they received from the hospital.

The local district attorney's office, which is representing the hospital in the lawsuit, said the hospital was expected to issue a statement later Friday in response to the ruling.

Not much is known about fetal survival when mothers suffer brain death during pregnancy. German doctors who searched for such cases found 30 instances of survival over nearly 30 years, according to an article published in the journal BMC Medicine in 2010.

But those mothers were further along in pregnancy - 22 weeks on average - when brain death occurred. For NDTV Updates,

Mexico court orders release of woman jailed for abortion

Updated: January 23, 2014 09:29 IST

Mexico City:  Mexico's Supreme Court ordered the release on Wednesday of a woman who served seven years in jail for aborting a child illegally, saying she did not receive due process.

The high court said Adriana Manzanares, an indigenous Tlapaneca who does not speak Spanish, was freed after conviction "due to several violations of due process, including the lack of an interpreter who spoke her language and understood her culture and worldview."

The attorney who helped secure her release was not immediately available for comment.

Local media reported that Manzanares had been sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2006 after authorities said she illegally aborted her fetus late in her pregnancy.

Manzanares got pregnant by someone else than her husband, the father of her first two children, in her southwestern village of Ayutla de Los Libres.

Under local indigenous customs, her husband and father were among those who stoned her, which by Manzanares's account caused her to miscarry, local media reported.

She was convicted "on insufficient evidence that a crime was committed, and insufficient evidence that she was responsible," the high court said.

Out of 112 million people, Mexico has almost 15 million indigenous people - including Aztecs, Nahuatl, Mixtecs and Maya - who speak dozens of languages.

But Mexico has been slow to adopt policies to encourage bilingual education, and ensure educational integration for indigenous people, most of whom live in rural and often relatively remote areas.

The government's attitude long has been that indigenous people should integrate themselves into the Spanish-language mainstream, or face worse living conditions.

Abortion is illegal in many but not all of Mexico's states. In Mexico City, it is legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. For NDTV Updates,