Right-to-die case is one of 'horror and absurdity'

[barryqwalsh]

Dr Mahony described the decision of the court that "the rights of the unborn must prevail over the feelings of grief and respect for the mother who is no longer living," as "an unsettling concept". She said better odds of foetal survival could invoke "the distressing spectacle of prolonged somatic support of a dead pregnant woman" - a prospect she described as "chilling".

Right-to-die case is one of horror and absurdity - Independent.ie

 

[Wake]

If a pregnant woman has just died, but there is a life within her belly that can be saved, why not save it? She may have wanted it to live all along. Unless otherwise stated, do you feel the lives of all viable unborns within the bellies of recently dead women must die? If, for example, she were to become brain-dead, but the life inside her is still alive, and she loved this life, and wanted it to live regardless, why not allow it to live on for her?

 

[barryqwalsh]

Under the Irish constitution, the foetus is regarded as a citizen.

In their ruling, president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, Ms Justice Marie Baker and Ms Justice Caroline Costello agreed the unborn baby had little chance of survival.

''The condition of the mother is failing at such a rate and to such a degree that it will not be possible for the pregnancy to progress much further or to a point where any form of live birth will be possible,'' they said.

Medical evidence showed the unborn child was facing into a ''perfect storm'' with no realistic prospect of emerging alive.

Doctors with the best interests of both the mother and unborn child do not believe there is any medical or ethically based reason for continuing with the ''grotesque'' process, the court was told.


Life-support of woman being kept alive because she was pregnant can be switched off - Telegraph

 

[barryqwalsh]

Another sad case in the hospitals has shown up a lack of legislative action. Again. Dr Adam McAuley reports

People have questioned the High Court’s role in the case of the pregnant woman who is braindead and on a life-support machine and why families cannot make these decisions.

Irish law does not permit family members to make decisions on behalf of an adult relative who has lost the intellectual capacity to make his or her own decisions. This court is the only forum available to resolve a disagreement between clinicians and family members about medical intervention for such an adult.

Abortion buck has been passed yet again Irish Examiner

 

[barryqwalsh]

Opinion: Tragic case of clinically dead pregnant woman highlights our unworkable approach to abortion


Following the burial today of a young woman, who was kept on life support while clinically dead due to legal considerations about her pregnancy, we must consider the legacy of the Eighth Amendment.

Opinion Tragic case of clinically dead pregnant woman highlights our unworkable approach to abortion

 

[BreezeWood]

... said it was "deeply wrong" that a grieving family were forced to seek a High Court intervention to end the young woman's life.

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it should be left up to the family and her spouse, their decision was to let her RIP - rest in peace.

.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Hard cases and bad law

The Eighth Amendment remains a minefield from a long-lost war, blighting lives unborn when it was planted. We need political leadership (although God help any politician trying to sell that at the Church gate collection) and we as an electorate need to grow up too. It’s past-time we became a proper secular democracy and dispensed with the rank hypocrisy of outsourcing 11 terminations a day to Perfidious Albion.

Opinion Tragic case of clinically dead pregnant woman highlights our unworkable approach to abortion

 

[MaxGrit]

Doctors are ethically not obligated and can refuse to provide futile treatments. They are also not obligated to continue to provide those futile treatments that were started in the past.

 

[Skull Pilot]

... said it was "deeply wrong" that a grieving family were forced to seek a High Court intervention to end the young woman's life.

.
it should be left up to the family and her spouse, their decision was to let her RIP - rest in peace.

.

Exactly.

Which underscores the need to have powers of attorney, medical proxies and a living will in force