Latest news with #braindeath
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
ABC News
19-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Baby of brain-dead mother Adriana Smith delivered in US state of Georgia
The baby of a brain-dead woman, forcibly kept alive by doctors concerned they might breach the state of Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion laws has been delivered in the US. Weighing just 1lb 13oz, baby Chance was born via caesarean section on June 13, and swiftly taken to the neonatal intensive care unit where he remains. His mother, Adriana Smith, was then taken off life support. What started out as a story of a young mother experiencing headaches rapidly became international news and the latest example of the consequences of laws applied by US states in the wake of Roe V Wade protections being overturned. The 30-year-old mother and nurse, was about nine weeks into the pregnancy with her second child, when she begun to experience headaches. Her mother, April Newkirk, told local news outlets that she was denied a CT scan and returned home. She woke the next day gasping for air and making gurgling sounds. Her boyfriend called 911 and she was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with brain clots. She rapidly deteriorated and within hours, was declared brain dead. Smith's family were told by the hospital that she would need to be kept on life support to preserve her pregnancy until they could deliver the foetus due to Georgia law that applies "personhood" to any foetus whose heartbeat can be medically detected. Three months later, Ms Newkirk told local media seeing her daughter kept breathing with machines was like "torture". She said that the family visited her daughter regularly with her five-year-old son. Ms Newkirk told local news station 11Alive that the family wanted the baby but the choice should have been up to them, "not the state". This week also marked what would have been Adriana Smith's 31 birthday. Family and community members gathered at a church in Atlanta for a rally and celebration of her life where they cut a birthday cake for her and released white balloons. Prior to Chance's birth, there were major concerns for his health. Ms Newkirk told local news network WXIA that doctors told the family the foetus had fluid on his brain. She also shared concerns he would be born with vision loss or wouldn't be able to walk. The hospital, Emory Healthcare told the Associated Press it could not comment on an individual case because of privacy rules, but released a statement saying it, "uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualised treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve." Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a near-total abortion ban in the state, in 2019. The law, which also defines a "person" to include an "unborn child" was blocked before it took effect because it violated the right to abortion established by the US Supreme Court in its 1973 landmark Roe v Wade ruling. But when that law was overturned in 2022, it cleared the way for the state law to immediately take effect. The Georgia law bans most abortions once a 'detectable human heartbeat' is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realise they are pregnant. The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also provides for later abortions when the mother's life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a foetus unviable. Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia's abortion law told the Associated Press in May the situation was problematic. "Her family deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions," Ms Simpson said in a statement. "Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatisation, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing." In May, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr released a statement saying that Georgia's six-week law does not require medical professionals to keep women alive on life support after being declared brain-dead. "Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy," Mr Carr's spokesperson, Kara Murray, said in the statement. Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and lawyer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said while a few states have laws that specifically limit removing treatment from a pregnant woman who is alive but incapacitated, or brain dead, Georgia isn't one of them. "Removing the woman's mechanical ventilation or other support would not constitute an abortion." "Continued treatment is not legally required." But Georgia state Senator Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported Emory's interpretation. "I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child," Mr Setzler said. "I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately." A similar case took place in Texas 10 years ago when a brain-dead woman was kept on life support for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge eventually ruled that the hospital was misapplying state law, and life support was removed. Georgia's abortion ban has been in the spotlight before. Last year, ProPublica reported that two Georgia women died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller entered into the presidential race, with Democrat Kamala Harris saying the deaths were the result of the abortion bans that went into effect in Georgia and elsewhere after Roe v Wade was overturned.
The Sun
18-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Brain-dead pregnant mum's ‘corpse' kept alive by doctors GIVES BIRTH after family had begged for her to be left to die
A BRAIN-dead mum's baby has been delivered after her family's torturous struggle with doctors to switch off her life support. Adriana Smith, 31, was nine weeks pregnant when doctors discovered she had blood clots in her brain and tragically declared her brain-dead. 5 5 5 But despite her family's plea to end her life, doctors said she couldn't be taken off life-support due to Georgia's ban on abortion. After months of agony, her baby, named Chance, was born prematurely on Friday. The little boy is being kept in the neonatal intensive care unit. Adriana's mum, April Newkirk, told local news: "He's expected to be OK. He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him." The boy's birth comes amid mounting fears he would be born with severe disabilities because of his mum's health complications. Just a couple months ago, April revealed how the foetus had hydrocephalus, otherwise known as fluid on the brain. She said at the time: "He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born. "Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive. "Whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we're going to love him just the same." Tragic discovery Adriana Smith, 30, was nine weeks pregnant when she went to hospital in Georgia seeking treatment for agonising headaches three months ago. Love Island star reveals heartbreaking decision to have abortion just seven months after giving birth The young nurse was sent home by doctors with medication who didn't conduct a CT scan. Adriana woke up the next day with a shortness of breath and making gargling sounds, with the hospital later discovering she had blood clots in her brain. After unsuccessful surgery to relieve the pressure they were causing, Adriana was tragically declared brain-dead. The nurse has a seven-year-old son who is now without his mum, leaving Adriana's already-grieving family devastated. But the already-harrowing circumstances turned into "an absolute horror show" after Emory University Hospital told Adriana's family that despite her being legally dead, she wasn't allowed to die. This is because the hospital - where Adriana previously worked - say it's acting "in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws". The hospital demanded Adriana's body was kept alive on breathing and feeding tubes until medical staff determined the male foetus was sufficiently developed to be delivered by cesarean section. Health officials in Georgia reportedly believe that removing her from life support would violate the state's strict anti-abortion laws. The laws prohibit termination once a foetal heartbeat is detected at roughly six weeks. Despite Georgia's contentious law dubbed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act containing an exception to save the life of the mother, according to the hospital, this didn't apply to Adriana. 5 5 They say this is because her life is beyond saving. Adriana's heartbroken family hadn't made a decision on whether to switch off her life support, but have been left devastated that the choice is no longer theirs. Adriana's mum heartbreakingly told 11Alive: "This is torture for me. "I see my daughter breathing by the ventilator but she's not there." Despite Georgia's LIFE Act just about getting passed in 2019, it didn't come into effect until 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. This is the 1973 case that determined a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Doctors anticipated that there will be even more problems for the growing foetus, with life-support systems not designed for long-term treatment of brain-dead patients. And with blood no longer running to Adriana's brain, the organ was already beginning to decompose. Director of the maternal foetal medicine division at George Washington University at the time said: "The chance of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this is very, very small." Contentious law Legal experts have argued that the ways in which anti-abortion laws have been written have made doctors and hospitals fear potentially facing criminal charges. They also say lawmakers should have anticipated how the movement to establish what's been dubbed "foetal personhood" - where a foetus would have legal rights - would end up putting the rights of the mum below those of their unborn child. Some of Georgia's conservatives have even argued that the state's LIFE law has been misinterpreted. The state's Republican attorney general Chris Carr said in a statement that the law doesn't require doctors to keep brain-dead patients alive as turning off life support "is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy". But others like state Senator Ed Setzler have said that there's a "valuable human life" and that "it's the right thing to save it". It is not the first time an American woman has been kept on life support due to a pregnancy. In 2014, Marlise Munoz became brain-dead due to a pulmonary embolism at 14 weeks pregnant. Hospital workers had refused to honour Marlise's previously stated wish to not be kept alive on machines. The medical staff cited a state law that stopped hospitals from withdrawing or witholding "life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient". But Marlise's husband began a legal battle to get her taken off life support, with a judge ruling in his favour. Marlise was removed from life support before the foetus was born. By Annabel Bate ABORTIONS in Georgia are banned after around six weeks of pregnancy. They are not allowed after foetal cardiac activity, otherwise known as a heartbeat, is detected. The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act prohibits abortions after this point, apart from if there are very limited circumstances like medical emergencies of if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. Doctors can face 10 years in prison for performing abortions illegally. When in Georgia who receive an abortion after six weeks won't face criminal charges or punishments.
Washington Post
17-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Baby delivered from brain-dead woman on life support in Georgia
ATLANTA — The baby of a woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead and has been on life support since February was delivered early Friday morning, her mother said. April Newkirk told WXIA-TV that 31-year-old Adriana Smith's baby was born prematurely by an emergency cesarean section early Friday, the Atlanta station reported Monday night . She was about six months into her pregnancy. The baby, named Chance, weighs about 1 pound and 13 ounces and is in the neonatal intensive care unit.
