Irish doctors seek to turnoff life support for pregnant lady

[Chowder Head]

:Ireland: Doctors Seek to Remove Pregnant Woman From Life Support " - the woman has been brain dead since Dec 3rd and the high court is suppose to be making a decision Tomorrow of doctors will be allowed to turn off life support.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ ... t-27784427

http://www.irishcentral.com/Doctors-ple ... woman.html

Most of the comments are in the lines of "its time to let them go" and other have jump the crazy and it all about its abortion supports pushing this agenda they just want the right too.... insert vomit... :ew: :pink-shock:

[DGayle]

If she was at a point of viability, I'd suggest a c-section, then letting her go. But at this early, they're turning her into an incubator, which is sick.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I don't think its right to keep a brain dead woman on life support because she is pregnant, unless her fetus is viable or almost viable (and is unharmed by whatever happened to cause the mother's death), I cant see a healthy baby coming out of a corpse. Didn't the last time this happened with a really early pregnancy end with them cutting life support, as it turned out that there would be severe problems with the fetus?

[Peas n carrots]

ILJB recently there was a case in Texas and another one in Canada. I believe the Texas one is the one you are referring to

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/us ... ?referrer=

The anti-choice crowd, in its quest to save the "unborn" are becoming downright ghoulish.

[Firiel]

I think it would okay to keep a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support if she would have wanted that, especially if the family is on board (which doesn't seem to be the case here). Of course, what the woman would have wanted can be difficult to determine, maybe even with a living will, because women who may not want to be kept on life support in general may want to in cases where it could save their fetus. That's how I would feel. I'd want my brain-dead corpse on life support to save my fetus, even if I weren't far along at all (if there was a decent chance of the baby surviving, which again doesn't seem to be the case here).

Do any of our medically inclined folks know how long a fetus can survive in a brain-dead mother? I'm just curious about it. I know the Texas woman's child had pretty much no chance, but I thought that was partly because she was without medical aid for too long and the fetus suffered massively from the lack of oxygen.

[uber frau]

Wasn't this woman something like 15 weeks pregnant when she died?

It would be almost 3 months to even get the fetus into microprem territory.

So fucked up. Not to mention a gross waste of public resources.

[DGayle]

Firiel, I've found a couple instances of 3 months.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 74609.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00669.html

The second baby ended up dying.

So it's extremely rare to last 3 months after brain death, and half the time, counting by the 2 cases I could find, the baby will die anyway. Chances are so far beyond even slight that they're frankencorpsing that woman for no reason. Maybe money from insurance.

[Mama Mia]

Firiel, I've found a couple instances of 3 months.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 74609.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00669.html

The second baby ended up dying.

So it's extremely rare to last 3 months after brain death, and half the time, counting by the 2 cases I could find, the baby will die anyway. Chances are so far beyond even slight that they're frankencorpsing that woman for no reason. Maybe money from insurance.

It looks like the main difference was that one baby was under 2 lbs at birth, and the other was over 3 lbs. what stood out to me was that it sounded like the baby who died mother discovered she had a brain tumor and died basically immediately. Maybe they just worded it badly, but that is unusual isn't it? That she found out about the tumor at 15 weeks and died at 15 weeks?

Anyway. I, personally, would want to be kept on life support if my family wanted it, and it seemed to be a good possibility of survival of the infant.

But in this case it seems all the doctors are saying survival is extremely remote, and, the family agrees and wants her off life support. So it seems incredibly cruel to be keeping her on life support for essentially no reason.

[Lillybee]

The court allowed the doctors to discontinue life support.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/iris ... ead-woman/

[Firiel]

Firiel, I've found a couple instances of 3 months.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 74609.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00669.html

The second baby ended up dying.

So it's extremely rare to last 3 months after brain death, and half the time, counting by the 2 cases I could find, the baby will die anyway. Chances are so far beyond even slight that they're frankencorpsing that woman for no reason. Maybe money from insurance.

Thank you for the info! Those are such sad stories.

In this case, the family wanted the government to let her be removed from life support. If they (and the woman) had wanted to try to save the fetus/baby, then I would be fine with life support continuing. After all, some people are willing to go through miserable treatments to try to recover when their odds of surviving are extremely slim. But when this kind of thing is unwanted by the family and the patient and forced by the government, it is really gruesome.

[Toothfairy]

I think it's the right thing to do to take her off life support. A baby at 15 weeks can't survive with a brain dead mother

[Jana814]

I think it's the right thing to do to take her off life support.

Agree!

[Trynn]

If it was me I personally wouldn't care. I'm dead, take he body and do what you want.

But if the family is saying it's time to let go, it's time to let go. We don't need another Jahi Mcmath

[Irishy]

The problem here was not that any of the medical team ever thought this foetus stood a chance, rather it was the 8th amendment to our constitution which left these doctors in a situation where they could have been prosecuted. It is obscene. This case can only lend more weight to the growing calls to repeal the 8th. In this instance, even the barristers for the 'unborn' conceded that every due consideration had been given to the foetus. There was no way this sick situation would have been allowed to continue. This woman had 2 other children and a family who need to be allowed to grieve.

[Irishy]

The rights of the 'unborn' take precedence over the right to dignity in death here.