In May 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed legislation (S.B.8) to ban abortion at six weeks of gestation, so early in pregnancy that many people may not even know that they are pregnant.
Watching the whole Texas Abortion law issue I decided to lean in and take a deep look.
Yes, I can see you rolling your eyes already but bear with me. It’s frustrating how a conversation about a very complex issue gets stuck on political talking points and stops the progression of any meaningful, collective understanding we might attain. Changing ones perspective can help.
Since the question When does Life Begin? is so contentious I decided to start at the end: What determines death? This is a straightforward question, right?!
Turns out…. nope!
Legal death is determined by irreversible cessation of heartbeat (cardiopulmonary death), and death determined by irreversible cessation of functions of the brain (brain death). Doctors perform confirmatory tests to document either no blood flow to the brain or no electrical activity in the brain.
There are three main schools of thought on death. There’s the commonly accepted view that a person is dead when all brain functions cease. But there’s also the view that a person is only dead after their heart stops beating. That’s the view held by many Orthodox Jews and Native Americans, as well as some Catholics and fundamental Protestants.
“The fight over what it means to be dead is essentially a philosophical or religious fight,” says Robert Veatch, a professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics. “In many ways,” he says, “it’s the abortion question at the other end of life.”[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/01/10/261391130/why-hospitals-and-families-still-struggle-to-define-death]
And there’s a third variation. While most definitions of brain death mean that all parts of a person’s brain are out of commission, Veatch and some others believe that a person can be brain dead even if certain minor functions of the brain remain. For example, if a patient shows a gag reflex, but no other signs of life, they should be considered brain dead.
In the United States, each state has laws for determining death that are modeled after the Uniform Determination of Death Act. States that do not recognize “irreversible cessation of all function of the entire brain, including the brainstem” to be death include Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas.
In these states doctors must accommodate the preferences of families who refuse to accept the diagnosis for religious reasons.
That happened in 2013, when the parents of Jahi McMath moved the13-year-old from a California hospital to one in New Jersey after a brain death diagnosis following tonsillectomy complications. She remained attached to life-support machinery for 5 years until her liver failed. [https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/the-challenges-of-defining-and-diagnosing-brain-death]
If you have the money you can legally keep your loved one on a ventilator (not life support. There is no life to support in a brain dead person. Only their organs are being kept alive.)
Another sad story involved John Peter Smith Hospital in Texas, maintaining a corpse against the wishes of the family, for the protection of a fetus that couldn’t live. The young mother, Marlise Munoz, declared brain dead, was to be kept on a ventilator until either until her 14-week-old fetus was delivered or died, as the hospital interpreted the existing law. As the standoff approached the end of its second month, Erick Munoz had had enough. He sued John Peter Smith Hospital for “cruel and obscene mutilation of a corpse,” that corpse being the love of his life.
Authors of the Texas Advance Directives Act told reporters they never meant for their law to be used to keep a pregnant dead woman “alive” until the hospital could deliver the baby. They said if that’s what John Peter Smith Hospital was doing, the hospital was misreading the law.
Losing someone is so difficult. It’s very hard to accept. Personally, I will always have doubts, questions, and uncomfortable feelings regarding my son, Kevin and his death and I know I will never find resolution. I will hear the sound of his last breath when the ventilator was taken off until I take my last breath.
Stories matter. Laws affect the lives of real people. How those laws are interpreted matters.
Under Texas law, a declaration of brain death means the patient is legally considered a deceased person, regardless of the patient’s heart still beating and oxygen pumping through his or her body. [https://texasrighttolife.com/]
So if, for the purposes of this conversation, the brain is the standard for determining death then how and when is the brain detected in a fetus?
Week 5or 6 not until the end of week 5 and into week 6 (usually around forty to forty-three days) does the first electrical brain activity begin to occur.
Week 6 or 7 the neural tube closes and the brain separates into three parts,
Week 7 the first synapses in baby’s spinal cord form during week
Week 8 electrical activity begins in the brain
End of second trimester (week 14-27) At the tail-end of trimester two, the brainstem (controlling heart rate, breathing and blood pressure) is almost entirely mature, resting just above the spinal cord but below the cerebral cortex (the last area to mature).
Third trimester (week 28-40) the brain triples in weight during the last 13 weeks of pregnancy.
- The cerebellum (chiefly responsible for motor control) develops faster now than any other area of the fetal brain. Its surface area increases 30-fold in the last 16 weeks.
- the cerebral cortex (the part responsible for thinking, remembering and feeling). This important area of the brain really only starts to function around the time a full-term baby is born. [https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/fetal-development/fetal-brain-nervous-system/]
When are brain and other problems detected in fetuses? How are they detected?
- Genetic amniocentesis (week15-20) involves taking a sample of amniotic fluid and tests it for certain conditions, such as Down syndrome. Amniocentesis done before week 15 of pregnancy has been associated with a higher rate of complications.
- Ultrasound scan mid pregnancy (week 18-21) to detect major physical abnormalities such as spina bifida, cleft lip, and heart and brain abnormalities.
Why are abortions illegal after 6 weeks when testing to find out about major abnormalities cannot happen until week 18?
I’ll wait…..
While I’m waiting I’d love for those Texas legislators to just Google a few of the abnormalities listed above (Google Images, of course).
Then I’d like to ask:
Questions for Texas Legislators
- Imagine this was your family member. Which one of those abnormalities would you find acceptable enough to force your trophy wife or side chick (or daughter or granddaughter) to have to carry to term?
- How would your wife (or side chick et al.) feel finding herself in such a heart-breaking situation?
If your answers are a. there are no abnormalities that you would force your woman to continue a pregnancy to term, and b. you have no idea how it would feel to be her, then congratulations! Your humanity is showing!
What if someone else made that very personal decision for you?
How would you feel?
Why you should even have an opinion on the choices Others are making with their doctors, for themselves and their families?
Why are lawmakers making healthcare decisions for families? Are they medically trained doctors? Do they know the details particular to each situation and family?
Does this not sound like government over reach to you?
Do you not see how taking away rights to reproductive decisions is about as anti-family as it gets?
None of us can ever truly know someone else’s situation. We might think we know what we would do. Reality often teaches otherwise.
Don’t forget your oath of office:
Oops! Sorry that’s the Hippocratic oath that doctors take regarding their patients. Yours actually says nothing about preserving, protecting, or defending those who pay you to serve them!
IN THE NAME AND BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS, I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of of the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.
My Life as a Tumbleweed 