Brain death, pregnancy, and posthumous motherhood

Journal of Clinical Ethics

Volumn 10, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 57-65

  Spike, Jeffrey ^a,b  

^a Strong Memorial Hospital   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; BRAIN DEATH; BRAIN HEMORRHAGE; CASE REPORT; CESAREAN SECTION; CHILD PARENT RELATION; CONFLICT; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; ECHOGRAPHY; ETHICS; FATALITY; FEMALE; FETUS MONITORING; GENETICS AND REPRODUCTION; GROUP PROCESS; HUMAN; INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSM; JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL ASPECT; LONG TERM CARE; MALE; MEDICAL ETHICS; METHODOLOGY; NEWBORN; POSTHUMOUS CONCEPTION; PREGNANCY; PREGNANCY COMPLICATION; PREGNANCY OUTCOME; PREGNANT WOMAN; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; RESOURCE ALLOCATION; SECOND TRIMESTER PREGNANCY; TREATMENT REFUSAL; TREATMENT WITHDRAWAL;

DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; GENETICS AND REPRODUCTION; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP;

ADULT; BRAIN DEATH; CEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE; CESAREAN SECTION; DISSENT AND DISPUTES; ETHICS CONSULTATION; ETHICS, MEDICAL; FATAL OUTCOME; FEMALE; FETAL MONITORING; GROUP PROCESSES; HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, PRACTICE; HUMANS; INFANT, NEWBORN; INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSM; JUDICIAL ROLE; LIFE SUPPORT CARE; MALE; PARENT-CHILD RELATIONS; POSTHUMOUS CONCEPTION; PREGNANCY; PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS, CARDIOVASCULAR; PREGNANCY OUTCOME; PREGNANCY TRIMESTER, SECOND; PREGNANT WOMEN; RESOURCE ALLOCATION; TREATMENT REFUSAL; ULTRASONOGRAPHY, PRENATAL; WITHHOLDING TREATMENT;

EID: 0033087171     PISSN: 10467890     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (10)

1. J. Spike and J. Greenlaw, "Ethics Consultation: Persistent Brain Death and Religion: Must a Person Believe in Death to Die?" Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 23, no. 3 (Fall 1995): 291-94.
2. J. Frader, "Have We Lost Our Senses? Problems with Maintaining Brain-Dead Bodies Carrying Fetuses," The Journal of Clinical Ethics 4, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 347-48.
3. New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Analysis and Recommendations for Public Policy (Albany: NYS Task Force, April 1998); F.A. Chervenak and L.B. McCullough, "Clinical Management of Brain Death During Pregnancy," The Journal of Clinical Ethics 4, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 349-50.
4. New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Analysis and Recommendations for Public Policy (Albany: NYS Task Force, April 1998); F.A. Chervenak and L.B. McCullough, "Clinical Management of Brain Death During Pregnancy," The Journal of Clinical Ethics 4, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 349-50.
5. I.M. Bernstein et al., "Maternal Brain Death and Prolonged Fetal Survival," Obstetrics & Gynecology 74, no. 3, part 2 (September 1989): 434-37.
6. M. Nattira et al., "Sheila's Death Created Many Rings of Life," Nursing 23, no. 3 (March 1993): 44-48. This article reports a case where the woman was also an organ donor after delivery. C. Diehl et al., "The Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman: Finding Meaning to Help Cope," Dimensions in Critical Care Nursing 13, no. 3 (May-June 1994): 134-41.
7. M. Nattira et al., "Sheila's Death Created Many Rings of Life," Nursing 23, no. 3 (March 1993): 44-48. This article reports a case where the woman was also an organ donor after delivery. C. Diehl et al., "The Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman: Finding Meaning to Help Cope," Dimensions in Critical Care Nursing 13, no. 3 (May-June 1994): 134-41.
8. J. Spike and J. Greenlaw, "Case Study: Ethics Consultation," Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 22, no. 4 (Winter 1994): 347-50. This case study argues for the right of doctors to refuse IVF treatment to couples for whom pregnancy would carry significant risk to the anticipated child.
9. These conditions come close to those of Jacqueline Glover, but with more emphasis on the right of the physician to withhold unreasonable options from the family, rather than leave this entirely a family decision. The justification for restricting the family's choices is that they are less likely to understand the fetus's prognosis, and more likely to confuse the deceased's wishes to be a mother with her desire to have a baby. In such a distressful situation, some limited paternalism is justified, the more so because the life at issue cannot represent itself. J. Glover, "Incubators and Organ Donors," The Journal of Clinical Ethics 4, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 342-47.
10. L. Purdy, "Commentary on 'The Baby in the Body'," Hastings Center Review 24, no. 1 (January-February 1994): 31-32.