Prolonging the life of a brain-dead pregnant mother to save her foetus

Abstract

Objective: To defend the claim that it can be morally justified to withdraw life-support to a brain-dead pregnant woman before the foetus is viable for a live birth using the following arguments: that preserving the mother’s life to save her foetus may be an infringement on her human rights and bodily integrity, that it can be morally justified to withdraw life-support to a brain-dead pregnant mother as the likely harms of continued life-support outweigh the benefit, and that life-support is a scarce and expensive resource.

Methodology: This is an ethico-legal bioethics study as it will be assessing the South African law and related guidelines regarding the treatment of brain-dead pregnant women with reference to ethical principles and concepts.

Conclusion: Life support is a scarce and expensive resource, and it can produce many complications for a maternal brain death patient. Prolonging the life of a maternal brain death patient using life support measures can violate her legal and ethical rights to autonomy, bodily integrity and human dignity. Therefore, I argue that it is ethically justified to withdraw life support from a brain-dead pregnant woman before her foetus is viable for a live birth.