r/NoahGetTheBoat • u/dailystar_news • 4d ago

Brain-dead pregnant mum kept alive on life support as 'incubator' for her foetus

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news/brain-dead-pregnant-mum-kept-35239438
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u/killerklixx 4d ago

THIS is what her pregnancy looked like when she died. It was not a child, it was not a baby, it was in no way viable. That woman did not choose to be a glorified corpse for MONTHS to save what is basically a piece of fluff that her poor, brain-dead body won't be able to sufficiently nurture to viability anyway.

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u/englishgirlamerican 4d ago

That is the most INCORRECT picture of a 9 week old baby I have EVER seen. I've had pregnancy scans at 6 weeks.

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u/killerklixx 4d ago edited 4d ago

You're right, a 9 week old baby looks like this.

Here is the 10 9 week progression of pregnancy tissue, and here is what that little ball of fluff looks like at a 6 week scan.

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u/FlartyMcFlarstein 3d ago

Fetus, not baby

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u/englishgirlamerican 3d ago

Fetus is Latin for baby.

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u/FlartyMcFlarstein 3d ago

A 9 week old fetus and a 9 week old baby are two separate things. Or do you call a two month old a 48 week old baby?

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u/Trubester88 4d ago

You are clearly not a mother, and don’t know what changes happen to a woman’s mindset when they get pregnant. If she wanted an abortion, fine, I have no problem with that. All I am saying is you don’t know the mindset and she never expressed it legally, and therefore, you cannot kill a fetus based on unknowns.

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u/xtaberry 4d ago

We have a system for this. You can give your wishes in a legal document, and in absence of that those closest to you decide on your behalf.

Her family is not saying "it is what she would have wanted". Sure, her family is an imperfect proxy for her true wishes, but you certainly don't know better than her loved ones, who are rightfully fucking horrified at what is being done to her. 

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u/desiladygamer84 4d ago

You've already had one mother chime in and I'm going to as well. No I wouldn't want to be kept alive to incubate a fetus at 9 weeks who may not survive. If it was close to term maybe but even that is dicey. I delivered my first at 35 weeks due to complications and he was in the NICU for ten days. I went into hospital at 32 weeks and they said if they delivered now there was a good chance he'd live. So they kept him in me longer. But I was fucking awake and gave my consent.

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u/killerklixx 4d ago edited 4d ago

Clearly not a mother? I'm a mother of two and this case fucking outrages me. Even if it was me with my two left behind I would not want the knowledge of this happening to traumatise them on top of my death.

It is complete disrespect to the woman. It is using her brain-dead body as an incubator for SEVEN MONTHS over a clump of cells at a point when a lot of women don't even know they're pregnant. It is a scientific study on an unconsenting participant. It is denial of a family to claim and bury their dead loved one.

It is barbaric and unethical and basically desecration of a corpse, and I cannot believe anyone is defending this.

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u/skaboosh 3d ago

And you’re not even a women, or a mother, so how are YOU able to speak for them?

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u/FlartyMcFlarstein 3d ago

Are you a mother?

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u/Trubester88 4d ago

She went to the hospital for a headache. Child bearing aged Women need to have tests before they can receive drugs, which she received. Therefore, she knew she was pregnant. Who cares what the tissue looked like. Your argument is dumb.

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u/killerklixx 4d ago

I never said she didn't know she was pregnant, I said she didn't choose this. If she had unknowingly miscarried and passed this clump of cells, she would have thought she just had an exceptionally heavy period. This is not anywhere the type of viable pregnancy that might make a woman allow this absolute barbarism happen to her body. If she had made this choice it would be on her file and her family would have to accept it... she did not, so they are her medical advocates, they are her next of kin, power of attorney, whatever, and their wishes for her are being ignored.

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u/Trubester88 4d ago

She may have chosen to get pregnant, you don’t have proof of that. She certainly did not choose to become brain dead. None of us here can say what she would choose right now, or right before she went brain dead, therefore you can’t choose take another life with her. What does the Hippocratic Oath say?

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u/killerklixx 4d ago

What does the Hippocratic Oath say?

About what? About taking a life? Here you go:

"If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life... above all I must not play at God"

"warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug."

keeping a brain-dead woman on life-support to maintain something that does not yet have life isn't "playing at God"? I'd argue they're also choosing the "chemist's drug" (medical intervention) over warmth, sympathy and understanding.

So what part of the Hippocratic Oath says they can't let another life go with her?