Judge Allows Husband’s Bid to Cut Pregnant Wife From Life Support, Kill His Unborn Child

Life News ^ | Steven Ertelt

[Gabz]

I wish to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for you eloquent and meaningful comments on this thread.

Thank you.

[DB]

Amen.

[Gabz]

That said, some of the comments directed to other FReepers are un-hinged.

And you speak from experience.

[MD Expat in PA]

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.

[jcbjjtbt]

Amen again, you’ve said many things well... Experience is much wiser than opinion.

[gas_dr]

You know you are cruel. You are so narrow minded in your judgment that you resort to name calling and emotional response. You said something beyond belief to another member of this community who shared her insight and experience to better the conversation. Calling any of us the death lobby is knee jerk reactionary and just plain BS. The next time you stand at bedside and work hours to resuscitate a human being, you will have standing to talk, however you clearly have no idea what you are talking about and making judgments about others and calling us the death lobby without sufficient knowledge or understanding makes you an ignorant fool. You and your inhuman comments give the other side the fodder they need to disparage us, and you single handedly do more to harm the cause of the pro life movement by being such a judgmental ass than anything else.

Your clinical credentials, please? Cyphergirl is a good and decent person based on her posts who shared something incredibly personal and this is what your response is? You deserve the scorn and derision that only the cruel should receive.

[Pajamajan]

Maybe you are not part of the death lobby, I'll give you that- But I'm seeing death lobby tactics being used on this thread.

What is suspect is that I quoted from the article that tests may not have been done to determine if the baby is deformed-But, you post that the baby is horribly deformed and suffering- That's a typical tactic used by the abortion-euthanasia crowd.

[chargers fan]

My wife and I had a discussion with this when we were putting together our wills. After seeking counsel we were told that in situations like this there is a difference between suicide (where someone unable to function without a machine is given a drug to kill them) and removing life support, which essentially at that point leaves it up to God. Of course, I’m sure someone can take my post to the extreme (I’ll expect a “Well if you get in a car accident and break every bone in your body you’d stay away from a hospital and leave it all up to God”) but I’ll assume most folks here are rational.

[Pajamajan]

The article says that the “tests” to determine if the baby is horribly deformed and suffering may not have been done, it also, rightly says- that the woman is not a corpse-otherwise the baby would be dead, or , are you, as some others on this thread, saying that the baby is dead?

[Jedidah]

Thank you both for your reasoned comments.

In this sad case, neither the mother nor the severely deformed baby can live.

There is no moral reason to artificially keep either of them “alive” and make this tragedy even harder than it already is on her husband and parents.

[Yaelle]

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.

[Pajamajan]

Hungarians Welcome Baby Born to Brain Dead Mother

I am very uncomfortable with hearing the terms "dead", "corpse", and "rotting corpse" being used to refer to people who are still alive-even if its via artificial means- this appears to be latest attempt of the death lobby to diminish and devalue human life, in order to further their agenda.

After all these years, that I am still completely outraged by the gross, cruel, unjust murder of Terri Schindler. I have very little patience/ tolerance for the opposing side.

They tend to lie, and twist, and confuse the point. They usually have no interest in checking the facts, running tests, at least considering giving the person a chance to live, exc... They have an agenda. Their goal is to end lives.

[freebilly]

The article says that there are “allegations” that the baby had developmental issues, but that no tests were run to diagnose the baby’s condition and verify the allegations.

[Pajamajan]

Someone asked on Lifesite news, if there is a life insurance policy on this woman. That is a good question.

[Nifster]

Thank you for the kind words. I too am heartbroken by this tragedy. May you too stay strong. Some are blind and cannot see.

[John Valentine]

In fact, she was dead, and as a result, even with the animated corpse on life support, the baby could not develop properly.

The situation was heart-wrenchingly tragic, no doubt, but artificially prolonging the agony is unconscionable.

[Mckenzie14]

Thank you!

[Jane Long]

First, my heart goes out to you for all that you've shared. I can personally relate to much of what you've had to deal with.

This situation is difficult, at the very least. There is a baby who is living, whose heart did not stop with the mother's end of "brain life". For what ever reason, the baby's heart continued to beat, rather than he/she dying at the time of the mother's brain death.

Yes, in the days of the Israelites both mother and child would not be living, after this amount of time had passed. Nor would there have been penicillin given for infections or neonatal care for premature infants. We've many miraculous advancements, since the "days of the Israelites".

All I ask is this: What is the harm in offering this baby a chance to live? There are even families standing by, waiting to adopt this child knowing he/she may likely have disabilities and challenges.

We don't know the viability of this child...only God knows that. All we can do is give him/her every fighting chance to live.

I think (or hope) we can all agree that this situation is heartbreaking, on many levels. And, that we can respectfully agree to disagree on what would be the proper way to handle this very delicate situation. Prayers go out to this family and all who are personally involved.

[luvie]

I believe that God, the Judge of us all, should make the
only ultimate decision here, not human minds that are
finite in scope and experience.

[wardaddy]

I’m with you as is my wife...mother of five

Folks here get real real real mean over this

Without reading all the facts

And issue armies on both sides exploit it

Mom is technically dead

Baby gravely damaged and with 27 weeks normally to go

So choice is keep dead woman on support 4.5 months so baby that likely wont survive can be born

Or pull plug

I give decision to the family....