A pregnant woman in Georgia was declared dead in the brain after a medical emergency and the doctors have kept her in life for three months so far to grant enough time for the baby to have been born and comply with the strict anti-avoly law of Georgia, according to family members.
It could be maintained in this state for more months.
The case is the last consequence of abortion bans introduced in certain states since the Supreme Court canceled ROE v. Wade three years ago.
Adriana Smith, a 30 -year -old mother and nurse, was declared dead from the brain – which means that she is legally dead – in February, her mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta TV Station Wxia.
Newkirk said her daughter had intense headaches more than three months ago and went to the Northside Hospital in Atlanta, where she received medication and was released. The next morning, her boyfriend woke up with her breath for the air and called 911. Emory university hospital determined that she had blood clots in her brain and was declared dead from the brain.
Newkirk said Smith was now 21 weeks pregnant. The elimination of respiratory tubes and other vital devices would probably kill the fetus.
Northside did not respond to a request for comments on Thursday. Emory Healthcare said that he could not comment on an individual case due to the confidentiality rules, but has published a declaration saying that it “uses the consensus of clinical experts, medical literature and legal advice to support our providers because they make individualized treatment recommendations in accordance with Georgia abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our main priorities continue to be the safety and well-being of the patients we serve. ”
The ban on the abortion of Georgia
Smith’s family says that doctors Emory told them that they are not allowed to stop or remove the devices that keep their breathing because state law prohibits abortion after heart activity can be detected – usually about six weeks after pregnancy.
The law was adopted in 2019 but not applied only after Roe c. Wade was canceled in the decision of the health organization of women of Dobbs v. Jackson for women, opening the door to state abortion bans. Twelve states require abortion prohibitions at all stages of pregnancy and three others have prohibitions like those of Georgia which enter after about six weeks.
Like others, the ban on Georgia includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to maintain the life of women. These exceptions were at the heart ofLegal and political issuesincluding a majorTexas Supreme CourtLast year, the decision noted that the ban applies even in the event of major pregnancy complications.
Smith’s family, including her five -year -old son, always visits him to the hospital.
Newkirk told Wxia that the doctors told the family that the fetus had liquid on the brain and that they were concerned about his health.
“She is pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he was born,” said Newkirk. She did not say if the family wanted Smith to be withdrawn from support for life.
Who has the right to make these decisions?
Monica Simpson, executive director of Sistersong, the principal applicant in adifficult trialThe law on the abortion of Georgia, said that the situation was problematic.
“His family deserved the right to have decision -making power over their medical decisions,” Simpson said in a statement. “Instead, they have endured more than 90 days of retraumatization, expensive medical costs and the cruelty of not being able to resolve and move towards healing.”
Laws Shepherd, bioethicist and professor of law at the University of Virginia, said that it did not think that life support was legally required in this case.
But she said that if a state could emphasize that Smith remains on life support is uncertain because the reversal of the ROEs, which found that the fetuses do not have the rights of people.
“Pre-Dobbs, a fetus had no right,” said Shepherd. “And the interest of the state for fetal life could not be as strong as to overcome other important rights, but now we do not know.”
What is the prognosis for the fetus?
The situation echoes aCase in TexasOver ten years ago, when a dead brain woman was kept in life for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge finally ruled that the hospital was wrongly state law and that life support has been abolished.
Brain death during pregnancy is rare. Even more rare are still cases in which doctors aim to prolong pregnancy after a woman is declared dead from the brain.
“This is a very complex situation, obviously, not only ethical but also medically,” said Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, director of maternal fetal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
A review in 2021 that Berghella co-written the medical literature has traveled decades for cases in which doctors declared a dead woman in the brain and aimed to prolong her pregnancy. He found 35.
Among these, 27 led to a living birth, the majority immediately declared healthy or with normal follow-up tests. But Berghella also warned that the case of Georgia was much more difficult because pregnancy was less far when the woman was declared dead. In the 35 cases he studied, doctors were able to extend the pregnancy on average seven weeks before complications forced them to intervene.
“It is just difficult to keep the mother out of infection, out of heart failure,” he said.
Berghella also found a case of Germany which led to a living birth when the woman was declared dead at nine weeks of pregnancy – as far as Smith at her death.
A projector on the law on the abortion of Georgia
Georgia’s law gives personality on a fetus. Those who promote personality say that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetus should be considered as people with the same rights as those who have already been born.
The senator of Georgia State Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the law of 2019, said that he supported the interpretation of Emory.
“I think it is quite suitable for the hospital to do what it can to save the child’s life,” said Setzler. “I think it is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital acts appropriately. ”
Setzler said he thought it was sometimes acceptable to delete support for someone who died, but that the law is “appropriate control” because the mother is pregnant. He said that Smith’s relatives have “good choices”, especially by keeping the child or offering him for adoption.
The ban on the abortion of Georgia has already been in the spotlight.
Last year, Propublica reported that two georgia women died after receiving appropriate medical treatment for complications in taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller participated in the presidential race, the Democrat Kamala Harris saying that deaths were the result of abortion bans that entered into force in Georgia and elsewhere after Dobbs.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
