Maternal brain death during pregnancy. Medical and ethical issues

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We present in detail a case of a 27-year-old primigravida who was maintained in a brain-dead state for nine weeks. An apparently normal and healthy male infant weighing 1440 g was delivered. The newborn did well and was found to be growing and developing normally at 18 months of age. Although the technical aspects of prolonged life support are demanding and the economic costs are very high ($217,784), there are ample ethical arguments justifying the separation of brain death and somatic death and the maintenance of the brain-dead mother so that her unbron fetus can develop and mature.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: