Adriana Smith, a Georgia woman, gave birth to a baby boy after being on life support for four months. The baby, named Chance, was born via emergency C-section at 29 weeks and weighed less than two pounds. Smith was declared brain dead in February due to blood clots in her brain. The case has raised ethical and legal questions, and Smith is scheduled to be taken off life support.
10 days ago
A Georgia woman, Adriana Smith, who was declared brain dead in February, gave birth to a baby boy, Chance, after four months on life support 1 2. The case has raised complex legal and ethical questions regarding end-of-life care and fetal rights in Georgia 1.
Adriana Smith, an Atlanta nurse, gave birth to Chance via emergency C-section at 29 weeks on June 13th 1 2. Baby Chance weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces at birth and is currently in the NICU 1 2. According to Smith's mother, April Newkirk, Chance is "expected to be OK" and is "fighting" 1 2. Doctors had initially planned to deliver him at 32 weeks 1 2.
In February, Smith was hospitalized after complaining of severe headaches 1 2. Doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain and declared her brain dead at nine weeks pregnant 1 2. Smith was kept on life support to allow her unborn child to develop 1. Smith, who turned 31 on June 15th, was taken off life support on June 17th 1 2.
The hospital initially cited Georgia's state abortion law as the reason for maintaining Smith on life support 1 2. This sparked national attention and debate 1 2. However, the Georgia Attorney General's office clarified that the state's LIFE Act, which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, did not mandate keeping Smith alive 1 2. The Attorney General's office stated that removing life support is not considered an action "with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy" 1 2. David Gibbs III, a lawyer at the National Center for Life and Liberty, suggested that Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act, specifically Section 31-32-9, might be the relevant law, as it includes a pregnancy exclusion prioritizing the unborn child's survival if viable 1 2.
April Newkirk, Smith's mother, expressed the difficulty of not having a choice regarding her daughter's treatment 1 2. She also voiced concerns about raising her grandsons and the increasing medical expenses 1 2. Newkirk stated, "I'm her mother. I shouldn't be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me" 1 2. Smith also has a 7-year-old son 1 2.
When does life begin according to Catholic teaching?
According to Catholic teaching, human life begins at the moment of conception . From the time the ovum is fertilized, a new life begins which is neither that of the father nor the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with its own growth .
In summary, Catholic teaching is unequivocal: life begins at conception, and from that moment, the embryo must be treated as a person with the inviolable right to life .