Life Support Case: Ethical Considerations a Crucial Part of Best Medical Practice

January 2, 2015

(Irish Times) – The burial of the brain-dead pregnant woman marks a closure of sorts for her family, following a long saga that began with her admission to hospital about four weeks earlier. Declared brain dead at a Dublin hospital on December 3rd and subsequently transferred to a local hospital, she became the centre of a legal issue that ended in the High Court. There, three judges cleared the way for the woman’s life support to be withdrawn, describing the continuation of somatic support as a “futile exercise”.