Hospital keeps brain-dead woman alive to save unborn baby, citing Georgia law

[Michie]

A Georgia hospital is requiring that a pregnant woman who was declared brain dead more than 90 days ago remain on life support until the birth of her unborn child.

In February, doctors declared 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a nurse who was nine weeks pregnant, brain dead after discovering multiple blood clots in her brain.

According to Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, after visiting the hospital complaining of painful headaches, Smith was “given medication” and sent home. Smith’s boyfriend found her “gasping for air” the next morning and called 911. After a CT scan, doctors discovered the blood clots and eventually determined nothing could be done.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta informed Newkirk that due to Georgia state law, because Smith is brain dead and no longer considered at risk, her medical team is legally required to keep her on life support until her unborn child can survive outside the womb.

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Hospital keeps brain-dead woman alive to save unborn baby, citing Georgia law

A Georgia hospital is requiring that a pregnant woman who was declared brain dead more than 90 days ago remain on life support until the birth of her unborn child.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

[RileyG]

Lord have mercy!

 

[Michie]

While the Catholic Church teaches that direct abortion is always wrong, in a case like Smith’s, it is “complicated,” Joseph Meaney, senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told CNA.

Meaney said the Church recognizes that in cases like Smith’s, where there is no clear teaching, a “discernment of conscience” is required. He said these situations can “reach a threshold of disproportionate burdens,” which can include financial considerations.

Another NCBC ethicist, Joe Zalot, told CNA that Smith’s case is a question of prudential judgment. Removing Smith from life support “without the direct intent to kill her unborn child” is not an abortion, he said.

However, Zalot continued, “when a woman is pregnant, doctors will say they are treating two patients. In this case, you have one patient, the mother, who is deceased, and another patient who is alive.”

“The question is, if it can be demonstrated that we are not harming the mother,” Zalot said, “can we give the unborn child an opportunity to live?”

 

[Valletta]

While the Catholic Church teaches that direct abortion is always wrong, in a case like Smith’s, it is “complicated,” Joseph Meaney, senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told CNA.

Meaney said the Church recognizes that in cases like Smith’s, where there is no clear teaching, a “discernment of conscience” is required. He said these situations can “reach a threshold of disproportionate burdens,” which can include financial considerations.

Another NCBC ethicist, Joe Zalot, told CNA that Smith’s case is a question of prudential judgment. Removing Smith from life support “without the direct intent to kill her unborn child” is not an abortion, he said.

However, Zalot continued, “when a woman is pregnant, doctors will say they are treating two patients. In this case, you have one patient, the mother, who is deceased, and another patient who is alive.”

“The question is, if it can be demonstrated that we are not harming the mother,” Zalot said, “can we give the unborn child an opportunity to live?”

A “discernment of conscience” is going to come into play in exceptional situations. I interviewed a soldier one night and asked how he was captured. He said there were three of them and one was badly wounded. The wounded man told them to leave him but they wouldn't. So the wounded man took out his pistol and shot himself. It turned out to be too late, they were surrounded by many enemy troops, so he got on the radio and ordered an air strike on his own position. Those actions bring up difficult moral quandaries.

 

[Michie]

Abortion advocates are framing the case involving a pregnant woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead and has been kept on life support for three months as a knock on the state's abortion law, drawing a rebuttal from a leading pro-life atheist who believes critics are misreading the statute.

Monica Snyder, the executive director of Secular Pro-Life, an organization comprised of atheists and agnostics who advocate against abortion, commented on the case of Adriana Smith in a Friday X post.

Smith is a 30-year-old mother who was declared brain dead three months ago, but the hospital has kept her on life support, as The Associated Pressreported Thursday.

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Atheist refutes those blaming Georgia abortion law as brain dead woman is kept on life support

Abortion advocates are framing the case involving a pregnant woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead and has been kept on life support for three months as a knock on the state s abortion law,

www.christianpost.com

 

[Michie]

In response to national outcry over the case of Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support, the Georgia attorney general’s office released a statement clarifying that the state’s heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, does not require Smith be kept alive.

“There is nothing in the LIFE act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” said the statement, issued by Attorney General Chris Carr’s office last week.

Quoting the law itself, the statement continued: “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”

Doctors at Emory University Hospital declared Smith, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, brain dead in February after she was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in her brain.

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Georgia AG: LIFE Act doesn’t require keeping pregnant brain-dead woman alive

The Georgia attorney general’s office released a statement clarifying that the state’s heartbeat law does not require a brain-dead pregnant woman to be kept alive.

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