Marlise Nicole Muñoz (August 20, 1980 – November 28, 2013) was an American woman at the center of a medical ethics controversy between November 2013 and January 2014. She suffered a suspected pulmonary embolism and was declared brain dead. Because she was pregnant, doctors at a Texas hospital kept her body on a ventilator in the intensive care unit despite the determination of brain death. Muñoz's husband entered a legal battle to have her removed from life support. A Texas law restricts the application of advance directives in pregnant patients, but Muñoz's husband argued that the law was not applicable because his wife was legally dead. A judge ordered the hospital to remove life support and her cardiac functions stopped on January 26, 2014. A Haltom City man has filed a lawsuit against John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth in an effort to remove his pregnant wife from life support. In the lawsuit, Erick Munoz's lawyers claim keeping 33-year-old Marlise Munoz on life support is against her Fourteenth Amendment right since she told loved ones she didn't want to be kept alive by a machine. The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall 'deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, the suit reads. The principle that a competent person has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in making decisions regarding their own body began at common law. The lawsuit further states since Mrs. Munoz is brain dead, she cannot possibly be a 'pregnant patient.' On the morning of Nov. 26, Mr. Munoz found his wife unconscious on the floor of the couple's kitchen. Mr. Munoz said later that day he was told by doctors at JPS Hospital that his wife 14 weeks pregnant with the couple s second child was brain dead. Doctors told Mrs. Munoz's family they suspect she suffered a pulmonary embolism. Since then, Mr. Munoz has been in a battle with JPS Hospital to remove his wife from life support. While tests on his wife's fetus show a normal heartbeat, Mr. Munoz said it was against his wife's wishes to be kept alive by a machine. Erick Munoz vehemently opposes any further medical treatment to be undertaken on the deceased body of his wife, read the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tarrant County. However, officials at JPS Hospital say it would be against the law to remove Mrs. Munoz from life support based on Section 1666.049 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient, the code reads. However, in the suit, Munoz's lawyers cite Section 671.001 of the Texas Health and Safety Code: (a) A person is dead when, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of the person's spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions... (b) If artificial means of support preclude a determination that a person's spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions have ceased, the person is dead when, in the announced opinion of a physician, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of all spontaneous brain function. Death occurs when the relevant functions cease. In the alternative, Section 166.049 is unconstitutional as applied to Marlise as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States, the suit reads. Both paramedics, the couple had extensive talks about life support, Mr. Munoz said. Mrs. Munoz's parents have backed up her husband's efforts to remove their daughter from life support. There was a lot of twinkle in our eyes and a lot of smiles and laughter, and not anymore, said Lynne Machado, Marlise's mother, in a report on Jan. 8. It s just barely getting through the day.

KHOU