A woman from Brain Dead Georgia has been alive since February to bring a fetus to be born

A pregnant woman in Georgia was declared a cerebral death after a medical emergency and doctors have kept her in life support for three months so far to allow the baby born and complies with the strict anti-flooding law in Georgia, according to family members.

Could be kept in this state for more months.

The case is the last consequence of the prohibitions of abortion introduced in some states since the Supreme Court annulled ROE V. Wade three years ago.

Adriana Smith, a 30 -year -old mother and nurse, was declared a brain dead (that is, legally dead), in February, her mother, A April Newkirk, told Atlanta Wxia television station.

Newkirk said his daughter had intense headaches more than three months ago and went to Atlanta’s Northside Hospitalwhere she received medication and was released. The next morning, his boyfriend woke up in the air and called 911.

Newkirk said that Smith is now pregnant for 21 weeks. Eliminating breathing tubes and other devices that save life could kill the fetus.

Northside did not respond to comment on Thursday. Emory Healthcare said he could not comment on an individual case due to the rules of privacy, but published a statement saying that he “uses the consensus of clinical experts, medical literature and legal orientation to support our suppliers, as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with the laws of georgia abortion and all other applicable laws. patients we serve. ”

The ban on Georgia abortion

Smith’s family says that doctors Emory have told them that they are not allowed to stop or eliminate devices that maintain their breathing because state law prohibits abortion after heart activity, usually about six weeks of pregnancy.

The law was adopted in 2019, but was not applied until ROE V. Wade annulled the Jackson Women’s Health Organization of 2022, opening the door to state abortion bans. Twelve states are enforcing abortion bans at all stages of pregnancy and three others have prohibitions such as Georgia, which began after about six weeks.

Like others, Georgia’s ban includes an exception if you need an abortion to maintain women’s life. These exceptions have been in the heart ofLegal and political questionsincluding a greaterSupreme Court of TexasLast year’s ruling found that the ban is applied even when there are significant complications of pregnancy.

Smith’s family, including his five -year -old son, still a visit to the hospital.

Newkirk told Wxia that doctors told the family that the fetus has fluid in the brain and worrying about their health.

“He is pregnant with my grandson. But he can be blind, he may not walk, maybe not survived once he was born,” said Newkirk. He did not say if the family wants Smith to take away from life support.

Who has the right to make these decisions?

Monica Simpson, Executive Director of Sistersong, the principal plaintiff in AChallenge of demandGeorgia’s abortion law said that the situation is problematic.

“His family deserved the right to decide on his medical decisions,” Simpson said in a statement. “However, they have endured more than 90 days of retraining, expensive medical costs and the cruelty of not being able to solve and move towards healing.”

Lois Shepherd, a bioeticist and law professor at the University of Virginia, said he does not believe that life support is legally required in this case.

But he said that if a state could insist that Smith remains in life support, it is uncertain, as Roe’s defeat, which found that the fetuses do not have the rights of people.

“Pre-Dobbs, a fetus had no rights,” said Shepherd. “And the state’s interest in fetal life could not be as strong as to overcome other important rights, but now we do not know.”

What is the prognosis of the fetus?

The situation is echoed atCase in TexasMore than a decade ago, when a woman killed by brain remained in life support for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge finally ruled that the hospital was hurting state law and that life support was eliminated.

Brain death in pregnancy is rare. There are even more rare cases where doctors aim to extend pregnancy after a woman is declared a brain.

“It is a very complex situation, obviously not only ethically, but also medically,” said Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, director of maternal fetal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

A 2021 review that Berghella co -authored slaughtered medical literature that dates back to decades for cases where doctors declared a woman’s brain and aimed to extend their pregnancy. Found 35.

Of these, 27 gave rise to a living delivery, the majority was immediately healthy or with normal monitoring tests. But Berghella also warned that Georgia’s case was much harder because pregnancy was less far away when the woman was declared dead. In the 35 cases he studied, doctors were able to extend the pregnancy in an average of only seven weeks before the complications forced them to intervene.

“It’s hard to keep her mother out of infection, out of heart failure,” she said.

Berghella also found a case of Germany that gave rise to a living delivery when the woman was declared a dead brain at nine weeks of pregnancy, approximately until Smith died.

A point of view on the law of abortion of Georgia

Georgia’s law gives personality in a fetus. Those who favor personality say that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses should be considered people with the same rights as those born.

Georgia State Senator Ed Sixzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported Emory’s interpretation.

“I think it is completely appropriate for the hospital to do its best to save the child’s life,” Sixzler said. “I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it emphasizes the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital acts properly.”

Setzler said he believes that it is sometimes acceptable to eliminate the support of the life of someone brain death, but that the law is “adequate control” because the mother is pregnant. He said that Smith’s relatives have “good choices”, including the child’s conservation or adoption.

Georgia’s prohibition on abortion has been before.

Last year, Propblica reported that two Georgia women died after they did not receive adequate medical treatment for complications of taking abortion pads. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller entered the presidential race, with the Democrat Kamala Harris said that the deaths were the result of the prohibitions of abortion that came into force in Georgia and elsewhere after Dobbs.

This story originally presented to Fortune.com

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