Irish Court Holds Patient Can Be Taken Off Life Support

Today, Ireland’s High Court ruled doctors could withdraw life support in the case of a clinically dead woman who is 18 weeks pregnant as there is no “reasonable prospect” her unborn child will survive. 

Earlier this week the court heard the woman’s family appeal that her treatment be stopped, saying they wanted her to die with dignity.  However, doctors refused to forego life support because they were concerned about the rights of the unborn child. 

Under Ireland’s Constitution, the unborn have the same right to life as the mother.  Except where the mother’s life is at a “real and substantial risk,” abortion is illegal. 

In announcing the decision, Justice Nicholas Kearns said, “To maintain and continue the present somatic support for the mother would deprive her of dignity in death.  It would subject her father, her partner and her young children to unimaginable distress in a futile exercise which commenced only because of fears held by medical specialists of potential legal consequences.” 

See Peter Taggart, Irish Court: Pregnant, Clinically Dead Patient Can Be Taken Off Life Support, CNN, Dec. 26, 2014.