Georgia hospital maintains family of brain-dead woman must bear full-term pregnancy due to prohibition on abortions

Georgia hospital maintains family of brain-dead woman must bear full-term pregnancy due to prohibition on abortions

Rewritten Article:

HEADLINE: Georgia's Heartbeat Law: A Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman's Battle for Life Support

A pregnant woman in Georgia, declared brain dead due to a medical emergency, has been maintaining life support for three grueling months to allow her unborn child to grow. This situation, as the family claims, is a consequence of the state's strict anti-abortion laws, particularly the "heartbeat law."

Georgia's heartbeat law, implemented in 2019 and enforced following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, restricts abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks of gestation. The law also grants personhood rights to a fetus, meaning the state considers the fetus a legal person with rights.

Thirty-year-old Adriana Smith, a mother and nurse, was declared brain-dead three months ago after a severe headache during her pregnancy took a fatal turn at Atlanta's Northside Hospital. With her due date still over three months away, Smith's case could potentially become one of the longest documented pregnancies under such circumstances. Her family is disheartened by the Georgia law, which does not provide relatives with the authority to make decisions about maintaining life support for pregnant women.

Under the law, maintaining life support for a brain-dead pregnant woman is required to let the fetus grow till it becomes viable outside the womb. However, the family's input and decisions regarding the unborn child's future are usually limited or nonexistent due to the state's vested interest in the fetus.

Northside Hospital has not responded to a request for comment. Emory Healthcare, where Smith was taken post-declaration of brain death, has remained silent due to privacy laws but has stated that their medical decisions are guided by consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal advice, with the aim of supporting their providers and complying with all applicable laws.

Smith's family is visiting her in the hospital, as they have been since the court-declared lung failure and subsequent switch to life support. While still uncertain about their next steps, they have expressed their concern about the unborn child's health, as doctors have diagnosed fluid on the baby's brain.

Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong, a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia's abortion law, views the situation as problematic. "This family deserves the right to make decisions about her medical care," she stated. "Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatization, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing."

According to Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and lawyer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, while some states have laws limiting the removal of treatment from pregnant women who are brain dead or incapacitated, Georgia is not one of them. Pope explained that continuing life support is not legally required, and removing the mother's mechanical ventilation or other support would not be considered an abortion.

Lois Shepherd, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Virginia, agrees with Pope, stating that life support is not mandated in the current case. However, the uncertainty surrounding the implications of the overturned Roe v. Wade ruling, which found that fetuses do not have the rights of people, leaves the situation ambiguous.

The Georgia case bears similarities to a case in Texas over a decade ago, where a brain-dead woman was kept on life support for about two months due to her pregnancy. A judge eventually ruled that the hospital was misapplying state law, and life support was removed.

However, the situation is complex, with both ethical and medical concerns. Maintaining life support can lead to risks for heart infections and heart failure, making it difficult to keep the mother healthy for an extended period.

Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, the director of maternal fetal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, studied 35 cases where doctors declared a woman brain dead and aimed to prolong the pregnancy. His research found that 27 of these resulted in live births, mostly with normal follow-up tests.

Nevertheless, Berghella cautions that Smith's case is more challenging due to the pregnancy's earlier stage at the time of brain death and the subsequent difficulty in maintaining life support. In the cases he studied, doctors were only able to prolong the pregnancy by an average of just seven weeks before intervening due to complications.

Georgia state Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the 2019 law, supports Emory's stance, viewing the hospital as acting appropriately to "save the life of the child." Setzler believes that, while it is acceptable to remove life support from someone who is brain dead in some cases, the law serves as an "appropriate check" due to the mother's pregnancy. However, he acknowledges that the family has good choices, such as keeping the child or offering it for adoption.

Notably, the heartbeat law has faced legal challenges, including a recent Fulton County judge overturning the law. The status and impact of this ruling on ongoing cases like Smith's remain uncertain.

[1] https://gatafterriot.com/georgia-heartbeat-law/[2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judge-strikes-down-georgia-heartbeat-abortion-ban-2023-03-24/[3] https://www.cbs46.com/local-news/health-issues/family-of-brain-dead-georgia-woman-says-theyre-being-forced-to-keep-her-alive-due-to-abortion-ban/

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