Two physicians and three women are suing to block a Kansas law that invalidates medical decisions pregnant women can make about end-of-life treatment. (iStock)
Vernon, the pregnant plaintiff, wrote an advance healthcare directive stating that, if pregnant and diagnosed with a terminal condition, she would only like to receive life-sustaining treatment if "there is a reasonable medical certainty" that her child would reach full term and be born "with a meaningful prospect of sustained life and without significant conditions that would substantially impair its quality of life."
The lawsuit says her directive has not been "given the same deference the law affords to others who complete directives because of the Pregnancy Exclusion, and therefore she does not benefit from the same level of certainty that the directive otherwise provides."
All states have laws allowing people to write advance directives on the medical care they would like to receive if they become unable to make their own health decisions. Nine states, including Kansas, have clauses to invalidate a pregnant woman's advance directive.
The defendants in the lawsuit are Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (pictured), Kansas State Board of Healing Arts President Richard Bradbury and Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Yet Kansas law compels them to disregard their patients’ clearly expressed end-of-life decisions, forcing them to provide their pregnant patients with a lower standard of care than any of their other patients receive," it continues. "It demands this diminished care without offering any clarity on what end-of-life treatment they are required to provide—leaving them to guess at what the law expects while exposing them to civil, criminal, and professional consequences for getting it wrong."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Kansas State Board of Healing Arts President Richard Bradbury and Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawsuit-filed-against-kansas-law-nullifying-end-life-choices-pregnant-women