Should a braindead woman be kept alive until her baby is born?

[Kazimiera]

I just read an article about a woman in Ireland who is brain-dead, but because she is 17 weeks pregnant (nowhere near full-term or even viability) doctors are keeping her body alive (against her family's will) until the baby can be born. After the birth they will switch off her life support system.

Of course there is a big uproar about it, from people who who support and oppose this decision.

How do you feel about it?

Should her life support system be switched off?
Should she be kept on life support until the baby is born?

This situation makes for an interesting ethical dilemma.


EDIT: I got my facts mixed up a little. Ireland DID take her off the life support because "a woman's body is not an incubator". I will post the articles below.

[Vasconcelos]

Losing one life is bad enough.

[Jackson]

Very sad, keep it on until the baby can be born. I would have thought that it would be the best option...

[Kazimiera]

The feminists have their panties in a knot over this. According to them the woman's body is being used "as an incubator".

[Linebacker]

Yes

[Vasconcelos]

The feminists have their panties in a knot over this. According to them the woman's body is being used "as an incubator".

Whaaaaat?

[Kazimiera]

Here are the articles. I got my facts a little mixed up at the beginning but the issue had me thinking.

Irish court allows abortion row pregnant brain-dead woman to die

Source: https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/25861415/irish-court-allows-abortion-row-pregnant-brain-dead-woman-to-die/

https://s.yimg.com/ea/img/-/141227/18d746b25c5ba9482ff5c01eae9b0e09217ac86a-1a9r8db.jpg

Dublin (AFP) - Ireland's high court ruled doctors can withdraw life support for a clinically dead pregnant woman on Friday, in the latest case to trigger heated debate on the country's stringent abortion laws.

Despite requests from the woman's family for her to be allowed to die, doctors continued life support as the Irish constitution says a woman and her unborn child have an equal right to life.

The woman was 14 weeks pregnant when she was declared clinically dead on December 3 after suffering a brain injury. She has been on life support since but is "deteriorating rapidly", the court heard.

The case touched on a deeply divisive issue in Ireland, which has a controversial constitutional ban on abortion, with even the head of the Catholic Church in the country saying, "A woman isn't simply an incubator."

The high court's judgement accepted medical evidence that the foetus has "no realistic prospect of emerging alive" and that only legal uncertainty had brought the case to this point.

"To maintain and continue the present somatic support for the mother would deprive her of dignity in death and subject her father, her partner and her young children to unimaginable distress," the judgement said.

It described continuing medical treatment as "a futile exercise which commenced only because of fears held by medical specialists of potential legal consequences".

The case reignited fierce social tensions in majority Catholic Ireland over the rights of unborn children, prompting the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin to speak out on the issue.

"From the point of view of Catholic teaching in general medical ethics, there is no obligation to use extraordinary means to maintain a life," Martin told Newstalk radio. "A woman isn't simply an incubator."

In a statement following the judgement, the Irish health service welcomed the judgement and expressed "deepest sympathy to the family... in the tragic and extremely difficult situation they have found themselves in."

- 'Too restrictive' -

But experts said similar cases could emerge in the future due to the broad language of the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution.

Though intended to outlaw abortion, the wording of the amendment does not refer specifically to termination and affords equal rights to a woman and her unborn child "as far as practicable".

"The (court's) decision was based on the absence of a realistic prospect of a live birth," Conor O'Mahony, a senior lecturer in constitutional law at University College Cork wrote in an analysis of the judgement.

"As long as the eighth amendment remains in the constitution in its present form, the possibility of such a deeply tragic and private case being decided in the very public and distressing surroundings of the courts will be present."

The broad wording of the law has also been blamed for causing confusion in emergency situations in the past.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Leo Varadkar said the constitutional rules around abortion are "too restrictive" and have a "chilling effect" on doctors.

"Difficult decisions that should be made by women and their doctors, a couple or next-of-kin... on the basis of best clinical practice, are now often made on foot of legal advice. That is not how it should be."

A series of protests have demanded the amendment be repealed, but Prime Minister Enda Kenny has ruled out a referendum before the next general election, which is due in 2016.

In 2013, after another divisive debate and a supreme court ruling, Dublin introduced new laws allowing for terminations in limited circumstances if the life of the mother was at risk.

It followed the death of 31-year-old Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital in October 2012, in a case that generated global attention.

Halappanavar had sought a termination when told she was miscarrying, but the request was refused as the foetus was alive and her life appeared not to be in danger. She died of blood poisoning days after miscarrying

[StormBringer]

I would've said yes, but just reading this.They claim baby can't survive even if they upkeep the pregnancy.
http://www.ibtimes.com/brain-dead-pregnant-woman-can-be-taken-life-support-irish-court-rules-landmark-1767914

The judgment was delivered after a number of doctors testified that the chances of the fetus surviving were virtually non-existent, according to media reports. Peter McKenna, the clinical director at the hospital where the woman was being treated, reportedly said that there was no justification for continuing the life support and that doing so would be “going from the extreme to the grotesque.”

There was a case here, of a woman turning down chemotherapy treatment of brain tumor so her baby could survive the pregnancy, she died 39 days after her son was born.
He turned 2 years this October.

[Hithaeglir]

I have mixed feelings over this.You might agree with it because you don't want to have two lives lost,so you decide to keep supporting the mother's body functions.But on the other hand,there should be limitations in medical procedures.By keeping her on life support,you make her suffer.
If i was the doctor i would take my decision based on the age of the baby.If it had only one month left to be born,i would keep her on life support,if the pregnancy was in the middle or less,i would let her die.

[armenianbodyhair]

should be up to the family.

[TheBlondeSalad]

They just treated her as an incubator once she was declared brain-dead three weeks ago, in spite of her previous wishes while alive, and the wishes of her family. The travesty here is that the rights of those currently alive are being ignored in favour of someone who doesn't even exist yet. That this even had to go to the courts to be settled is absurd.

A person's dead body is the concern of their family, not the State. This woman should be given a decent burial and the foetus allowed to die, because this is what her family want.

[Itarildë]

The child will grow up without a mother for a start. It's a tough one.

[Stefan_Dusan]

If she's truly braindead, keeping her on life support means she's not suffering. She's already dead.

[Vasconcelos]

The child will grow up without a mother for a start. It's a tough one.

Better to grow without a mother than not growing at all, wouldn't you agree?

[Unome]

The feminists have their panties in a knot over this. According to them the woman's body is being used "as an incubator".
According to feminism, the baby should live if it's a girl, but die if it's a boy.

[StormBringer]

The child will grow up without a mother for a start. It's a tough one.

Maybe they should bury the rest of her children alive with her as well so they don't have to go through growing up without a mother :rolleyes:
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?153219-The-mummies-of-Qilakitsoq-and-the-Inuit-baby-that-captured-hearts-around-the-world&highlight=inuit+baby

The family didn't decide to pull the plug because "they didn't want her to be an incubator", or because the child would have to grow up without a mother, but because the baby most probably wouldn't survive the pregnancy, thus couple of months down the road they would mostly likely end up going through the horror of a braindead woman delivering a stillbirth.

[Dictator]

They just treated her as an incubator once she was declared brain-dead three weeks ago, in spite of her previous wishes while alive, and the wishes of her family. The travesty here is that the rights of those currently alive are being ignored in favour of someone who doesn't even exist yet. That this even had to go to the courts to be settled is absurd.

A person's dead body is the concern of their family, not the State. This woman should be given a decent burial and the foetus allowed to die, because this is what her family want.

Baby murder.

[Itarildë]

Maybe they should bury the rest of her children alive with her as well so they don't have to go through growing up without a mother :rolleyes:
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?153219-The-mummies-of-Qilakitsoq-and-the-Inuit-baby-that-captured-hearts-around-the-world&highlight=inuit+baby

The family didn't decide to pull the plug because "they didn't want her to be an incubator", or because the child would have to grow up without a mother, but because the baby most probably wouldn't survive the pregnancy, thus couple of months down the road they would mostly likely end up going through the horror of a braindead woman delivering a stillbirth.

Oh shut up. I haven't read into the story so had no idea she had other other children.

[Sacrificed Ram]

Evident not, I still didn't kill my mother just because she appears be brainless.

It is even an advantage for her, because her absence of inteligence a lot of men give money for her and she repass for me.

[Meina]

In my opinion I believe a brain-dead woman who is pregnant should be kept alive. People like to talk about how it's the woman's body, the surviving family's choice. No one speaks up for that baby. If the baby were to choose it would say "Yes, please! I'd like to live!" The woman's body is irrelevant at that point.