Biomedical Ethics | Postmortem Pregnancies Are Unethical

Technological advances have allowed doctors to keep a pregnant, brain-dead woman alive long enough to safely carry her baby to term. These pregnancies are called postmortem pregnancies. Arguments advocating such practices are invalid, contends Hilde Lindemann Nelson in the following viewpoint. She asserts that sustaining the pregnancy does not always benefit the fetus and oftentimes imposes a substantial burden on the mother. Furthermore, Nelson argues, neither the law nor morality compel physicians to sustain a postmortem pregnancy. Nelson is a research associate and former associate...

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