Life-Support Pregnancy Case to Have Intl Impact
A three-judge panel in Dublin is deciding whether a brain-dead pregnant woman should be kept on life support.
The case has reignited a heated debate between Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny and the state's Health Minister Leo Vardkar over the country's Eighth Amendment, which states that both a woman and her unborn baby should enjoy equal protection under the law.
The unnamed mother of two suffered a severe internal injury weeks ago. Doctors at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital were unable to save her life, but kept her on life support to protect the child.
She is now 17 weeks pregnant.
The woman's partner and parents want to pull the plug on her life support and have filed lawsuits against the hospital.
"What happens in Ireland will have international impact," Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told CBN News.
The judges may issue a ruling later Tuesday after they hear arguments from five groups of lawyers representing the woman, the fetus, her parents, her partner and the hospital.
"A lot of times we hear the term 'fetus' as opposed to 'child' in legal proceeding," Hawkins noted. 'You can be a human and not a person' and that's how they make it scientifically okay.
There are proven cases of survival, she continued. The child in the woman's body has their own systems and just needs the woman's protection."
Hawkins cited a recent story from the Daily Mail of a 36-year-old woman in Milan, Italy, declared clinically dead in October. The San Raffaele Hospital kept the woman alive and she gave birth through by a cesarean to a healthy baby boy.
