This one is a tough case for me as a doctor. I completely disagree with the removal of the ventilator if baby were viable or there was a chance. That being said, you are entirely correct, mom is dead, and once mom dies, it effectively ends the pregnancy. So I suppose after weighing ll the facts this is a two corpse problem. I am heartbroken for both mom and child. If the PE happened when MOM was 27 weeks pregnant, then delivery could be accomplished. This is a sad, wrenching, awful case. I agree that baby should be delivered alive, but it does appear that moms brain death has irreversibly destroyed or damaged the child. It makes me want to cry all around, but my emotional disposition does not change the facts, unlike what others think...
Unfortunately emotions run high in cases like this. That said, some of the comments directed to other FReepers are un-hinged.
Thank you. You and I share the same view on this. IMO, this would be something quite different if the mother had died at a point during her pregnancy at 25 weeks (the lower limit for fetal viability) or even at 21 weeks when fetal viability, while very unlikely, might still be possible and she (her dead, brain dead body) was only kept artificially “alive” just long enough to deliver a live baby. But she died while pregnant at 14 weeks. Keeping a corpse alive under a poorly written law in this case and a further misinterpretation of the original intent of the law, only to “deliver” a dead child many months after her death, is IMO unethical and grotesque.
You and the others you mentioned I think have the most true look at this terribly tragic situation.
I think this “law” is not fair to families where a woman dies in early pregnancy. This is not ok, to gestate a baby so very poorly inside a brain dead corpse. I can see it as one last act of maternal love if the mom dies around 30 weeks and they put her on life support for two weeks. But surely not at 14 weeks, holy moly.
This should be decided on a case by case basis and the family should have some rights as well. Not just the state.
Unborn babies deserve to grow inside a living mother. This wasn’t for a week or two, this was for 6 months. Not such a good situation. There are millions of other situations where the unborn should be fought for and saved, but this is an extreme example where there isn’t a way to decently save the baby. And note: they did not save the baby - it wasn’t viable due to the mother’s brain death.
Thank you for the kind words. I too am heartbroken by this tragedy. May you too stay strong. Some are blind and cannot see.