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The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
A baby born to a brain dead mother: this is the horror of abortion bans
On Friday 13 June, a baby was born in an Atlanta hospital to a woman who had been dead for four months. Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Black nurse and mother, was declared brain dead in February after blood clots formed in her brain. Legally, and by all meaningful measures, she was dead then: the woman who loved her family, laughed with her friends, comforted her son, helped her colleagues and cared for her patients was gone then, and was never coming back. But the state of Georgia, and the administrators of the hospital where she was declared dead, kept her corpse in a state of artificial animation for months. That's because when Smith went to the hospital in February complaining of a headache, and later became unresponsive, she was about eight weeks pregnant. According to her family, doctors at Emory hospital, in Georgia, told the family that the state's abortion ban required them to maintain the regimen that falsely animated their daughter's corpse so that the fetus inside her could continue to grow. The Georgia state attorney general denies that the state's abortion ban required this abuse of Smiths's body. But other supporters of the law disagree. The result, either way, was the same: in deference to a law that created genuine ambiguity about what freedoms Smith's doctors and family had in the wake of her death, a woman who did nothing other than be pregnant was denied the right to rest in peace. Brain death is distinct from a vegetative state or a coma; it is the complete and permanent loss of the function of the entire brain, including the loss of the function of the brain stem, which is needed for basic organ functions like the reflexive intake of breath and the beating of the heart. There is no chance of recovery; usually, the invasive life support required to sustain the body of a brain dead patient is administered only long enough for the patient's family to say goodbye. That's because what life support does to a patient's body, in addition to being medically futile, is also extreme and invasive. The artificial ventilator that acts as a bellows, pushing air in and out of the dead lungs, involves tubes inserted through the nose and throat, extending into the stomach and windpipe. These tubes, in Smith's case, were tools of the state, extending the force of the law into the inside of her corpse. It was the state, via these machines, that pumped her heart, contracted her lungs, and pushed blood into the dead tissues of her body, so that cells could continue dividing inside her uterus. It was the state that used these machines to desecrate Smith's corpse – to turn it from the vessel for a beautiful person, the nurse and mother, into an object that symbolized women's degradation and Smith's disposability. What should have been a respected artifact of a loved person became a macabre marionette, pushed and pulled by a state apparatus that sees all women's bodies as mere means to its own ends. Last month, the fetus was cut out of her corpse prematurely; presumably, doctors did not think that the dead body could sustain a pregnancy any longer. Physicians working on Smith's case told her family that as a result of gestating inside a dead uterus, the resulting child could experience health complications ranging from blindness to the inability to walk. The infant that was extracted from the dead woman, a baby boy, weighs less than 2lbs, and is currently in neonatal intensive care. The family has named him Chance. The desecration of Smith's corpse by Emory University hospital and the state of Georgia is a grim reminder of how little women's personhood is esteemed in post-Dobbs America. But Adriana is not the first woman to have her dead body abused this way. In 2013, a 33-year-old Texas woman, Marlise Muñoz, was declared brain dead after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Because she was 14 weeks pregnant, the hospital argued that the state of Texas required her to be kept on life support, solely so that her corpse could be used to continue the cultivation of the fetus. Her husband, Erick, sued to have her removed from life support so that he could bury his wife and grieve in peace; still, the hospital artificially animated her corpse until a judge ordered them to stop. Marlise's family would tell reporters that as they visited her body in the hospital, they could smell her flesh decaying. There is something particularly unsettling about seeing a corpse: the absence of the person who was once there is so conspicuous that it makes the body uncanny. That the body is not the person becomes clear the moment you see a body without a human person in it. And yet the body is the instrument and vessel of the person who animates it, and as such it commands to be treated with dignity, with a kind of reverence, with the respect you would give to a human being. Abortion bans disregard this: they appropriate the body for the ends of the state, indifferent to the will or the dignity of the person who lives in it. Rape functions this way, too—using a body for an end, without deferring to the person who inhabits it. In both cases—rape and abortion bans – the body of a living person is reduced to an instrument for someone else's use. That contrast – between the dignity that a human being's body demands and the instrumentalization with which it is treated – is what supplies abortion bans and sexual violence with their moral horror. They treat living people as mere objects. In that sense, a corpse might be the perfect vehicle for the anti-abortion movement's agenda: it is a female instrument without the annoying encumbrance of a female person. But Adriana Smith was a person; so was Marlise Muñoz. They were not objects, or instruments; they were people endowed with dignity and rights. In life and in death, they deserved better. Every woman does. Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
A baby born to a brain dead mother: this is the horror of abortion bans
On Friday 13 June, a baby was born in an Atlanta hospital to a woman who had been dead for four months. Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Black nurse and mother, was declared brain dead in February after blood clots formed in her brain. Legally, and by all meaningful measures, she was dead then: the woman who loved her family, laughed with her friends, comforted her son, helped her colleagues and cared for her patients was gone then, and was never coming back. But the state of Georgia, and the administrators of the hospital where she was declared dead, kept her corpse in a state of artificial animation for months. That's because when Smith went to the hospital in February complaining of a headache, and later became unresponsive, she was about eight weeks pregnant. According to her family, doctors at Emory hospital, in Georgia, told the family that the state's abortion ban required them to maintain the regimen that falsely animated their daughter's corpse so that the fetus inside her could continue to grow. The Georgia state attorney general denies that the state's abortion ban required this abuse of Smiths's body. But other supporters of the law disagree. The result, either way, was the same: in deference to a law that created genuine ambiguity about what freedoms Smith's doctors and family had in the wake of her death, a woman who did nothing other than be pregnant was denied the right to rest in peace. Brain death is distinct from a vegetative state or a coma; it is the complete and permanent loss of the function of the entire brain, including the loss of the function of the brain stem, which is needed for basic organ functions like the reflexive intake of breath and the beating of the heart. There is no chance of recovery; usually, the invasive life support required to sustain the body of a brain dead patient is administered only long enough for the patient's family to say goodbye. That's because what life support does to a patient's body, in addition to being medically futile, is also extreme and invasive. The artificial ventilator that acts as a bellows, pushing air in and out of the dead lungs, involves tubes inserted through the nose and throat, extending into the stomach and windpipe. These tubes, in Smith's case, were tools of the state, extending the force of the law into the inside of her corpse. It was the state, via these machines, that pumped her heart, contracted her lungs, and pushed blood into the dead tissues of her body, so that cells could continue dividing inside her uterus. It was the state that used these machines to desecrate Smith's corpse – to turn it from the vessel for a beautiful person, the nurse and mother, into an object that symbolized women's degradation and Smith's disposability. What should have been a respected artifact of a loved person became a macabre marionette, pushed and pulled by a state apparatus that sees all women's bodies as mere means to its own ends. Last month, the fetus was cut out of her corpse prematurely; presumably, doctors did not think that the dead body could sustain a pregnancy any longer. Physicians working on Smith's case told her family that as a result of gestating inside a dead uterus, the resulting child could experience health complications ranging from blindness to the inability to walk. The infant that was extracted from the dead woman, a baby boy, weighs less than 2lbs, and is currently in neonatal intensive care. The family has named him Chance. The desecration of Smith's corpse by Emory University hospital and the state of Georgia is a grim reminder of how little women's personhood is esteemed in post-Dobbs America. But Adriana is not the first woman to have her dead body abused this way. In 2013, a 33-year-old Texas woman, Marlise Muñoz, was declared brain dead after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Because she was 14 weeks pregnant, the hospital argued that the state of Texas required her to be kept on life support, solely so that her corpse could be used to continue the cultivation of the fetus. Her husband, Erick, sued to have her removed from life support so that he could bury his wife and grieve in peace; still, the hospital artificially animated her corpse until a judge ordered them to stop. Marlise's family would tell reporters that as they visited her body in the hospital, they could smell her flesh decaying. There is something particularly unsettling about seeing a corpse: the absence of the person who was once there is so conspicuous that it makes the body uncanny. That the body is not the person becomes clear the moment you see a body without a human person in it. And yet the body is the instrument and vessel of the person who animates it, and as such it commands to be treated with dignity, with a kind of reverence, with the respect you would give to a human being. Abortion bans disregard this: they appropriate the body for the ends of the state, indifferent to the will or the dignity of the person who lives in it. Rape functions this way, too—using a body for an end, without deferring to the person who inhabits it. In both cases—rape and abortion bans – the body of a living person is reduced to an instrument for someone else's use. That contrast – between the dignity that a human being's body demands and the instrumentalization with which it is treated – is what supplies abortion bans and sexual violence with their moral horror. They treat living people as mere objects. In that sense, a corpse might be the perfect vehicle for the anti-abortion movement's agenda: it is a female instrument without the annoying encumbrance of a female person. But Adriana Smith was a person; so was Marlise Muñoz. They were not objects, or instruments; they were people endowed with dignity and rights. In life and in death, they deserved better. Every woman does. Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A brain-dead Georgia woman is set to be taken off of life support after her baby was delivered
Adriana Smith, the pregnant Georgia woman who has been brain-dead since February, gave birth by emergency Caesarean section Friday and is set to be taken off life support this week, her family told a local NBC News affiliate. The case made national headlines. Smith's mother said her daughter had to stay on life support until she gave birth because of Georgia's six-week abortion ban, which has narrow exceptions for rape, incest, or the life or health of the pregnant person. Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead. Smith's mother told local news that the baby weighs 1 pound and 13 ounces and will require care in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. Emory Hospital, where Smith has been kept, has declined to comment on the case beyond telling the Associated Press that they considered 'Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws.' The Georgia law holds that after six weeks of pregnancy, embryos and fetuses deserve the same legal protections as people. The case has sparked broad outcry, with national Democrats denouncing the Georgia law and some state lawmakers calling for clarifications about what is permitted under the law. State Attorney General Chris Carr has said he does not believe that the abortion ban compels health providers to keep a pregnant person on life support until they can give birth. Still, he has not issued a legal opinion asserting as much, despite calls from Democratic state lawmakers. Some abortion opponents have argued the law would mean Smith should stay on life support. Ed Setzler, a state senator who co-sponsored Georgia's six-week ban, told the Associated Press that it was 'completely appropriate' to keep Smith on life support until she could give birth. Students for Life, an influential anti-abortion group, has said the same. Georgia is one of four states with a six-week abortion ban; Florida, Iowa and South Carolina have similar laws, including with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life or health of the pregnant person, along with some exceptions for pregnancis with fetal anomalies. Another dozen states ban abortion throughout pregnancy. The post A brain-dead Georgia woman is set to be taken off of life support after her baby was delivered appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple Inc. (AAPL) Partners with Emory Healthcare to Power First U.S. Hospital with Its Devices
Emory Hillandale Hospital in Georgia has become the first U.S. hospital to fully operate on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices, signaling a major step in AAPL's push into health care. The hospital will use iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, iMacs, and Mac minis, all integrated with Epic, the nation's leading electronic health record (EHR) software. An Apple store displaying the latest in consumer electronics, from smartphones to wearables. Emory executives chose AAPL for its user-friendly design, robust cybersecurity, minimal IT support needs, and reliable hardware. The move follows last July's widespread CrowdStrike outage, which crippled over 20,000 devices at Emory but left Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products unaffected, prompting deeper collaboration with AAPL and Epic engineers. Emory Healthcare CEO Dr. Joon Lee called the initiative a potential 'game changer,' noting the system will closely monitor the rollout to ensure improved patient care. Feedback from a pilot program was 'phenomenal,' boosting confidence for this full-scale launch. If successful, Emory plans to expand AAPL device use across its 10 hospitals. Dr. Sumbul Desai, vice president of health at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), said the company is 'thrilled' to support Emory in delivering exceptional care, while Epic's Seth Howard described the integration as a natural evolution of their longstanding partnership with AAPL. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Woman with dementia missing for days in Atlanta, family says
The family of a missing woman suffering from dementia is seeking help from the public. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The sister of Anne Parke, 64 years old, told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that she has not been seen since Feb. 18. Lisa Hart said Friday that her missing sister is also in bad physical shape from an attack in a Midtown parking lot Feb. 13. She was transported by ambulance to Emory Hospital Midtown that day but later discharged without family members being made aware. He sister said Parke had only the clothes on her back - no phone, no ID and no money. The family filed a missing person report with Atlanta police and Emory police. Anyone with knowledge of her whereabout was urged to contact either department, case no. 2500405. TRENDING STORIES: STORY 1 STORY 2 STORY 3[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
